Chapter 6 –
The following Sunday was September 1st and Harry had gone to the Burrow early to accompany Ginny to school. He had arranged to ride with her and speak to Professor McGonagall about the wedding being held at Hogwarts over Christmas. He would floo back in the evening.
Sirius, Remus and Hermione had spent a quiet day in Grimmauld Place. Sirius cleared away more of the attic while Remus and Hermione continued their inventory. They had worked out a system by title and author for the library, though things admittedly got difficult when several of the books refused to share shelf space with others and would fly back into the faces of the two itinerant librarians. In the end, the books all settled into an acceptable organization, with all of the good first and second editions going into the collection in Hermione's room along with some of her favorites. They'd even worked out a spell for an inventory book that would keep track of all of the books from the library and where they were so that they could always be found.
Just as Hermione was putting the finishing touches on the runes for the inventory, Remus let out a cry of pain before doubling over in pain, holding his head.
"Remus!" she cried, getting up and helping him to the couch. "What's wrong?"
Sirius came barging in the door, having heard the shout. "What happened?"
"I don't know, Sirius. He just grabbed his head and started wailing. I don't know what's wrong. Do you think it was one of the books?"
"No," said Sirius, casting a levitation charm on the wizard who had balled up on the couch. "Let's take him to his room."
"Sirius what's going on? What are you doing?"
"I don't know exactly, but I think it's started."
"What's started?"
Sirius ignored her question and continued through the doorway and across the hall to Remus' room, placing him down in his bed. "Hermione get a relaxation potion. There should be some down in the cupboard in the basement. I keep it there for his transformations."
Without a word she ran down the stairs to find the potion. Ideas of what could be happening to the afflicted werewolf ran through her mind. Is this a weird transformation? Did he touch the wrong book? Did something in this house attack him? There were all of those pendants in the display case. I wonder if they're what he touched.
By the time she reached Remus' bedroom again with potion in hand, Sirius had gotten Remus uncurled, but he still held his head and moaned in agony. Hermione just stood in the doorway, feeling helpless.
"'Mione, bring the potion here. And hold down his other hand long enough for me to get it in him." But there was no need for the potion at all. As she had reached out to restrain his arm, Remus' body had suddenly gone limp as though he was -
"Oh God - Remus. Is he dead?" she could not help but ask Sirius, her hand still inches away from where Remus' now limp arm lay.
"No. He's breathing," replied Sirius, "I think he's in his coma now, but I don't know. We'll need to run his vitals." Sirius began to wave his wand in small complicated motions over Remus' chest with a worried look on his face. "He seems to be out now, like he's just sleeping."
Hermione looked at Sirius incredulously. "How can you be so calm about all of this? What the hell is going on?" she yelled.
"Hermione, calm down. I knew that something like this might happen. Remus was in a coma in our seventh year at Hogwarts for four months, so this isn't the first time. I'm not sure why it's happening, but I will explain it all after we've sent a message to Minerva."
Minerva McGonagall was strolling the halls of Hogwarts. She sometimes did this while she thought through complicated situations. She found being surrounded by the thriving, managed chaos of students during class change helped her organize complicated and convoluted issues in her mind. This afternoon she was thinking about how to advise the recently elected Minister of Magic about Goblin rights reform. When she had taken up the post of headmistress, Dumbledore's position of political counselor also fell to her. As she turned down the corridor that held the prefects' quarters, the portrait entrance to the quarters burst open.
"Oh thank god, professor! I just found myself in a strange-"
"Remus?" McGonagall gasped. A young Remus Lupin stood in front her, school tie half over one shoulder and his hair sticking up as though he'd been running his hands through it.
"Professor, what's going on? My room was full of someone else's things and… did your hair get greyer than it was yesterday, ma'am?" Remus asked.
"Err-" McGonagall was lost for words, which didn't happen often. "Let's go to my office, Remus. We'll get everything sorted out there."
"Professor McGonagall, what's happening?"
"I don't know."
She turned to walk up the flight of stairs next to them, but Remus grabbed her arm.
"Professor, your office is a floor down," Remus insisted.
Minerva opened her mouth to disagree, but then stopped short. This Remus Lupin looked so young.
"We'll go to the Head's Office so I can use the floo in there," she invented, "Come along, Remus."
"The message to Minerva is on its way. I tried catching her in her office by floo, but she didn't answer," Sirius said as he walked back into Remus' room.
"Ok," Hermione said without really hearing what he had said. She had remained by Remus' side since she had come back with the calming potion. She pushed his bangs out of his eyes and placed a cold washcloth on his forehead.
"Hermione?"
"What, Sirius?" she sounded aggravated already.
"I think everything's going to be okay."
"Okay? Okay?" she had finally lost it, "You calmly tell me that Remus has sunk into a coma, but it's okay – you've been expecting it! Did you tell anyone? No, but that doesn't matter. It'll be okay. Of course it'll be okay. What was I thinking?"
Sirius cowered a little as she screamed. She turned back to Remus, stroking his hair out of his face. He noted that she had placed his shoes on the floor and tucked him into the blankets.
With a voice deadly calm, she said, "Sirius, tell me what is going on." It wasn't a request.
Sirius opened his mouth to answer, but a crash in the kitchen told him that someone had arrived by floo.
"I'll go see if that's Minerva."
Running down the stairs, Sirius tried to think of how to explain to Minerva about Remus' condition and what might be going on when he ran head long into a much younger Remus.
"Sweet Merlin on a bicycle! Remus!"
Minerva stepped out of the floo and sighting Sirius, gave him a stern look.
"I thought, perhaps, from your message that you might know what is going on, but from the look on your face, I was wrong," she said.
Sirius looked up at Minerva who was waiting for an explanation. "I do know what's going on, Minerva. It's just been a really long time since…"
Young Remus was staring at Sirius, with the confusion of looking at someone who looks familiar but you can't quite remember who they are or where you've met them.
"Sirius, is Remus here?"
"Of course I am, I'm right here," then realizing what the headmistress had said he turned back to the tall black-haired man, "Sirius? What's going on here? You're not Sirius. He's back in our dorm, getting ready for James' Quidditch game." He began to back himself into a corner, looking at his surroundings. "Where are we? Professor, I think we should go back to school."
"Unfortunately, we cannot leave the oldest and most noble house of Black until we have figured out why you are here and what is going on, Remus," said McGonagall calmly.
"So, we're in Sirius' house? And you're, what - his uncle?" Remus shot at Sirius, trying to rationalize.
Sirius opened his mouth to answer Remus, but hesitated and turned to the headmistress instead. "I think we should go upstairs. Hermione's up there and we can discuss the situation together."
Remus had never been inside the Black house, but Sirius had told him about it. He walked up the long narrow staircase and thought it was much cleaner than Sirius had described. He glanced into a library, seeing a few lingering piles of books, but was directed into the room across from it. A man was lying in a bed there. A woman, who sat next to him, looked up at them as they entered. She gasped a little at his appearance and he wondered at what.
"Sirius, what the hell is going on here?"she asked.
"I would very much like to know the same," McGonagall agreed, looking at the man on the bed.
"As you well know, Headmistress, Remus went into a coma in his seventh year at school."
"I did not!" Remus replied indignantly, "And I'm standing right here you know. This isn't a funny joke. I'd like to get back for the Quidditch game. James is playing and Sirius will be waiting on me."
The three people in the room looked at him in surprise.
"So it is Remus," the woman on the bed finally said. "You haven't told him anything?" She turned somewhat nastily to Sirius, "I guess that's not much of a surprise though, you haven't told anyone anything."
Sirius was getting frustrated, "Then just listen. Remus, you're going to have to go along with this for a few minutes, please."
Remus nodded, but didn't speak. He had just noticed the man on the bed also looked strangely familiar and the woman beside him kept glancing down at him.
"When Remus went into his coma, he spoke. James, Lily, Peter and I would spend time by his bedside and sometimes he would say things - things that didn't make sense. We would hear things about people and places that didn't make sense. I never told anyone, not even James, after hearing … something one night, I started writing the things he said down."
Minerva looked from the man on the bed to Remus and back, coming to a realization. "A magical coma. He didn't only fall into a coma in that one location in time."
"You mean, this is the coma that he was in twenty years ago?" the woman asked.
"Who is that man?" Remus interjected, suddenly uncomfortable with his presence, however inactive.
"Remus," Minerva said as though trying to calm a spooked hippogryph, "There's something we have to tell you."
"Who is that man?" He yelled this time, not really knowing why.
"His name is Remus Lupin. He's who you are twenty years in the future. You've gone into a coma at school and been propelled through time magically."
"No, Professor. I'm not in a coma anywhere. I've got to go back. I have homework to do and I'm sure I'll have missed the match by now, so I'll have to explain at dinner…" He began to back towards the door.
"Remus, please calm down. Sirius, I think it's best that I take him back to Hogwarts and settle him in there," Minerva said, still trying to keep Remus calm.
"You can't. He has to stay here," Sirius interjected.
"But why, Sirius? You haven't explained it all yet," insisted Minerva.
"Because of the things he heard Remus say," said the woman on the bed, now tucking the man in a little tighter.
"Hermione, how did-" Sirius began.
"You said you wrote things down. What did he say, Sirius?"
Both women looked expectantly at Sirius. "He talked about things - things I didn't understand then. Not until after I came back to live here. He talked about Harry. He said Lily and James were dead."
Dead. But they couldn't be. "No," said young Remus, "They can't be, I just saw them. Lily was getting her jacket and James kissed her goodbye before heading down to the match. They're not dead."
The unknown woman walked towards him saying, "Not in your time, Remus. They're not dead then. They're happy and fine then. But you're not with them in that time anymore. You're twenty years into your future. And things are different now."
"You mean - no, you can't."
Sirius stepped forward towards him as well, "Remus, it's me. I'm Sirius, not his uncle or anyone. You've come through time and now… James and Lily aren't with us anymore, mate."
Remus' head started to spin, "No. Professor, what's going on here?"
"Unfortunately, my dear boy, what they're telling you is true."
"This is some trick, some death eater trick. That's why you've brought me to Sirius' house. Is this Regulus' doing?"
"Remus," Minerva implored, "calm down."
"This can't be - " He pushed the door hard into Sirius and sped backwards out of it.
The "moving" phase is starting to settle a bit. I hope you enjoyed it. Please R&R.