Chapter 4

A/N: 122 reviews!!!!! Wow! Thanks everyone! I'm touched, really! *goes around and starts shaking hands*

I had totally forgotten that I said Harry's eyes were blue when I posted the chapter! No, it wasn't a mistake. (You guys honestly think I don't remember that lovely little valentine Ginny sent him in CoS?) The explanation's in this chapter. If you read my author's note at the end of Chapter 3, I said that the chapter was originally going to be longer, but then Chapter 4 would have been too short. I guess I cut the explanation off when I re-divided the chapters. Sorry! I made his eyes blue so that Lily and James wouldn't notice the resemblance between Lily and Harry's eye color. I mean, what fun would that have been? :)

As for my other mistakes (I know, there's tons of them!), I'll try to fix them as soon as possible. I might keep my version of the Time-Turner, though. I rather like it. Anyway...

Chapter 4

After he had rushed out of the common room, Harry went straight to his dorm and flopped down onto the bed. He hoped that Anne wouldn't turn out to be another one of the girls who followed him around and worshipped the very ground he walked on. During his fifth year, his fan clubs had died down a great deal, due to the disastrous events of the Triwizard Tournament. However, it seemed that this year, all of his admirers had returned anew, more annoying than ever.

Suddenly, Harry realized how rude he must have seemed. The other boy hadn't even gotten a chance to introduce himself before Harry had dashed out of there. In truth, Harry really didn't have that much homework. The only thing he had left to do was a Transfiguration essay that wasn't due until the following week.

He walked over to the mirror and took in his reflection, his messy black hair sticking up in all angles as always. At first, the light blue eyes that stared back at him instead of the usual striking green startled him. Then he remembered the Iris Potion he had made that day in Snape's class.

'Better get used to this eye color,' Harry thought, recalling how Snape had told them that it would last for one to two weeks.

Harry moved away from the mirror and paced the length of his room, trying to decide how to occupy himself. He definitely couldn't return to the common room, considering how eager he had been to escape. Hermione would mostly likely be irritated at him and give him a lecture on manners. He didn't feel like doing his Transfiguration essay, and he didn't have the necessary research done, anyhow.

Just when he concluded that he was going to have to sit around in his room and wait for one of the others to come up, the door opened.

~*~*~*~

James saw Harry pacing back and forth across the room with a bored expression on his face and grinned. "Really busy doing homework, I see."

Harry looked up, startled. "Um…" he said, not knowing what to say.

To his relief, James didn't seem to hold it against him. "Don't worry, I would've hightailed it out of there, too, if Ev—er…Anne had been staring at me like that. I don't believe we've officially met. I'm Jon Whitman."

Harry nodded and grinned. Jon didn't seem that bad. "So, uh, how do you like Hogwarts? Not that you've seen much of it yet."

James smiled wryly at the irony of this remark. He knew practically every secret passage in the school, and was one of the four founders of the Marauders Map.

"It's okay, I guess. But then again, I can't really judge yet, can I?"

"Guess not," Harry replied.

The two made some more polite conversation for a bit. James was starting to get bored, so he decided that it was time to spill the beans to Harry, who obviously couldn't figure out his true identity because of his new hair style and the sheer absurdity of it.

After all, Dumbledore had never actually said not to tell anyone about who he really was. The headmaster had just changed his name so that the whole school didn't find out and get all worked up. Besides, James felt like his own son had a right to know.

"Listen, Harry, I know this may sound strange to you and all, but there's something you need to know about me and Anne Parker."

~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, down in the common room, Ron, Hermione and "Anne" were hitting it off.

Once he had overcome his initial shyness around Anne, Ron discovered that the girl was actually quite pleasant to talk to. 'She seems like the type of person that you can trust with your darkest secret,' Ron thought.

"So, Anne, did you know that other exchange student before you came to Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

Lily stiffened at the mention of James. During the past hour or so since he had gone upstairs, she had almost forgotten their predicament and whose fault it was. But now, it came back to her full force.

"I guess you can said that," Lily replied carefully. "We went to the same school, but we don't exactly…get along."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I know how that feels." She thought of Draco Malfoy and his goons.

"Oh, really? You don't really seem like the type that makes a lot of enemies," Lily responded.

"Draco Malfoy and his henchmen are enemies with everybody who's not a Slytherin. But Harry, Hermione and I have it the worst because Harry refused to be friends with Malfoy."

"Draco Malfoy?" Lily asked incredulously. Surely…surely he couldn't be Lucius Malfoy's son? She didn't know if she could handle it if he were. Having another Potter at the school was already bad enough.

~*~*~*~

"…and so, Dumbledore thought up the story of the two of us being exchange students and changed our names," James finished.

Harry was stunned. So these two new students were actually from twenty years in the past? It was incredible. Too incredible.

"I don't believe you," Harry stated flatly.

James was shocked. He had thought of the various reactions Harry could have, but the idea that Harry might think him a liar who had invented the whole story never even crossed his mind.

"I swear I'm telling the truth! I wouldn't make up something like that just to … just to…" he trailed off, unsure of a reason he would have for lying.

"Get attention?" Harry added.

"No! Believe me, I get enough attention in my own time. More than I really want, actually."

"All right, fine. Let's just pretend for a minute that this absurd story is true. Where did you get the Time-Turner?"

"I didn't find it. Anne did. It was in one of the trunks in my dorm."

"What was Anne doing in your dorm?" Harry questioned.

"I assume that she was looking for prank material. I'm not sure, though. She never really said. But judging from the fact that she was about to make off with a pair of my boxers—" Harry burst out laughing at this point and James had to pause, "—I suppose that's what she was doing."

"Uh-huh. Are you sure that's all she was planning to do with them?" Harry smirked.

James was silent for a few moments, trying to grasp the meaning behind the words. "Oh, that is just plain disgusting! Of course she only wanted them for a prank! Anne hates me, all right? She wouldn't go anywhere near my undergarments if it weren't to humiliate me."

Harry's grin just grew wider at this.

Suddenly, James realized something. "So, this means that you believe me?" he asked hopefully.

Harry thought for a while. "Hmm … maybe. I don't know yet."

Then, a sudden idea struck him. "Hey! You're supposedly from twenty years in the past, right?"

"I am from twenty years in the past," James corrected.

Harry pretended to ignore this. "Does that mean you knew Snape when he was a student?"

James chuckled. "Did I? He was only my worst enemy! Of course I knew him! And he was in my year, too!"

"Ugh … that must have been horrible! So, what was he like? Was he always the nasty slimeball he is now?"

"Of course he was! And I'll bet that he hasn't washed his hair once in the twenty years since I last saw him!"

The two boys both cracked up at this, even though James had only been stating the obvious.

"Jon?" Harry asked, when they had calmed down a bit.

"Yeah?"

"I think I believe your story."

James smiled. "Good."

"So, what's your real name?"

James didn't respond for a few seconds, trying to judge how Harry would take this. Finally, he replied, "James Potter."

A/N: Oopsie-daisies! Was that another cliffie from me? I think it might have been! I don't know when I started liking cliffies so much! Due to some of the reviews, I won't tell you if I have the next chapter finished or not, so as not to torture you guys anymore than I already have. (maybe that's because I DON'T have the chapter done for a change? Or do I? Hmm...)

Oh yeah! Guess what! (Not that you care) I got PoA yesterday! Yippee! I'm not very far yet, but I just got it last night, and I haven't really gotten around to reading it that much. Now, if you evil people would quit demanding more parts of this story, I might actually have some free time to read it! NO! I didn't mean that! Review! Review! Really!!! (Was there a point? No, not really. Just me and my incessant babbling. You'll learn to tune it out and stick to the important stuff. And you thought I didn't like writing author's notes!)

~Thank You's~

bluemeanies, Sandra Solaria Dees, Karina, linda, peppy, Jivanna, dan, phoenix, Persephone Malfoy, Phoenix_Mage, Trinity Day, vmr, raeban, BabBlGrl, sax_playa, amanda, hi, Eternity, phoenixGrl***, Mione, Someone2 and Krazy Kris, Kcarke, wulfpaw, Lady Lupin, miss pms, Lilly Potter, Mel, *Lil Lily*, Shadow, Black Sparkles, Quack Quack 88, Juliana Black, Amberblaze, Prongs, Pylite

~Questions, Answers, and the Such~

IMHO, these are slightly better responses than last times. But then again, that's me and my cruel mind's way of thinking. You'll have to judge for yourself, unless you want to take my word for it. Don't know if you'll want to do that...

bluemeanies: I don't know why Dumbledore didn't put them in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. I probably should know, since I wrote the thing, but I don't.

linda: Well, old Jamsie-Boy kinda spilled the beans to Harry... No more surprise there...

Phoenix_Mage: What's wrong with Harry? Hmm, maybe the whole Triwizard thing made him more sensitive about his fame than before. I wouldn't really know, since I haven't read GoF yet. Or maybe it was because Lily was gawking at him.

Trinity Day: Sorry for dangling the carrot! I'm getting better, see? I didn't do it in this chapter! Or maybe that's just because I don't have a carrot to dangle.

Eternity: Yes, everyone can see that Harry's eyes are blue.

Someone2: No, I didn't mean you when I said s2. I meant season 2 of Roswell! Sorry for the confusion! :( No, you didn't sound mean. Don't worry 'bout it. (I'm sure you've already spent countless night tossing and turning in your bed because of that. :) Even though there's only been one night since I last posted.)

Kcarke: I'll fix the teeth thing ASAP! Which, for me since I'm lazy, may very well mean it may never get fixed at all...

Lady Lupin: Bubotuber? Eek!! I posted! See? It's right here! Please spare me! *gets down on her knees and begs*

Lilly Potter: Yeah, I think I've gone into withdrawal, too. But I don't get UPN. :( My friend said she might be getting satellite soon, and hopefully she'll have UPN on that. :) Yes, I agree with you. Ron is definitely better than Harry! But it's still pretty sick.

Juliana Black: Funny? Really? Thank you ever so much! I've never really viewed myself as someone who can write funny stories. *walks around with a smile on her face*