Miss Moony would like to dedicate this chapter to HPfreakout for being the first reviewer.

Miss Moony would also like to thank Kaaera, war-pigs, lilyflower01, Toki Mirage, Fk306 animelover, Anthea, Antanaqui and Unknown-Dreams for reviewing.

To Anthea: There's a H/J community at livejournal called jphp(underscore)slash, and there's quite a lot of stuff there, even if quite a lot of it is NC-17. And all those fics get put in the Unspeakable archive at http/devoted. to/ hpxjp (obviously, you need to remove the spaces first, though). Glad you like the fic, and thank you, because I take great pride in my spelling and grammar.

To Kaaera: Umm… I can't remember what's going to happen about the cover story, actually. But thanks for your input, as always.

To Toki Mirage: Sadly, no. I'm not a big Snape fan. One of the reasons I was so delighted by HBP.

Chapter warnings: Time-travel

Chapter summary: Harry gets to know his mother, and James tries to prove that he really is growing up.

------- I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good -------

Chapter 7: Growing Pains

'Okay, class,' Eir said, clapping her hands to bring her seventh year Potions class to attention. 'Today we'll be attempting to make the Draught of the Living Dead, and you'll be working with partners that I'll be assigning.'

The brief murmur of excitement that bubbled up when she'd said they'd be working in pairs died down at this new revelation, and Eir took a moment to revel in the muttered complaints that her students were voicing to each other, and then she looked them all over swiftly and began to call out names. 'Black and Hart, Lupin and Snape, Henning and Keel, Fowler and Potter…'

She went on as Remus moved over to sit next to Snape, and a Ravenclaw boy called Jeremiah Fowler took his place next to James. Hart, a round-faced girl whose first name Harry wasn't sure of, had been sitting next to a Gryffindor girl who Harry recognised immediately as Lily Evans, his mother – she blushed faintly as Sirius grinned flirtatiously at her when she moved over to sit with him.

'Blackmoon and Evans,' Eir called out, and Harry met his mother's eyes and then stood, picking up his books and cauldron and moving across to the seat that Hart had just vacated.

'Hi,' he said, offering his hand and smiling. 'Lily Evans, right? I'm Harry.'

She grinned and accepted his hand, saying, 'I've heard. You're the one who managed to annoy Potter on the first day, aren't you? Congratulations.'

Harry laughed, and, looking fleetingly towards James and Fowler's desk, he noticed James staring in his direction murderously.

'Any good at this?' he asked Lily, facing her again and gesturing flippantly towards the Potions ingredients on the worktop.

She shrugged. 'I'm okay,' she said, smiling. 'Why?'

Harry grinned. 'Good thing, too,' he said, 'I'm not even sure how I managed to pass my Potions OWL.'

Lily laughed, and the two of them got to work.

-------

'Thanks,' Harry said to Eir, lingering behind as the rest of his classmates filed out of the Dungeon.

Eir smiled at him, and accepted his thanks graciously. 'I knew you wanted to get to know both of your parents, Harry. And this seemed to be a decent way to help you along, even if Mr. Potter doesn't look too happy about the arrangement.'

Harry had to crack a grin at that, and he left the Dungeon in good spirits, only to be caught by surprise when he was tackled in the corridor and pushed up against the wall by a snarling Sirius.

'What?' he snapped, now thoroughly irritated.

'Evans is James' girl, Blackmoon,' Sirius growled. 'Stay away from her.'

Frowning, Harry forcibly removed the front of his robes from Sirius' fist and pushed the older boy away from him slightly. Brushing imaginary lint off his robes and straightening up, he replied, 'I'm sorry, Sirius, but I was under the impression that Lily belonged to herself.'

Sirius bared his teeth in a very dog-like manner, but didn't respond as Harry strode away from him, throwing back over his shoulder, 'Oh, and, Sirius… I don't take well to threats.'

'You'd do better to leave her alone, though, if you want James to like you as much as you seem to.'

Harry froze, stiffening for a moment. 'What I want, Black, is none of your business. You'd do better to remember that.'

-------

Upon reaching the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where the seventh year Care of Magical Creatures classes took place in this age, Harry heard someone call his name, and turned to see Lily beckoning him over to where she was sitting on the short wall around the hippogriff enclosure with Hart.

Smiling, he made his way over to join them, and sat himself on the other side of Lily.

'Hi, Harry. This is Alice Hart, my best friend.'

Harry reached across Lily and shook Alice's hand, suddenly noticing the similarities between her and Neville. Alice Hart must have become Alice Longbottom after leaving school, he thought, and introduced himself just as Professor Kettleburn arrived and quieted the class before instructing them on the proper way to greet a hippogriff, and calling Peter up to demonstrate: apparently, he and a Hufflepuff girl called Judy Tillman were the star Care of Magical Creatures students, a position that had belonged to Sirius before he ditched the class in favour of Divination with James, whose mother hoped that he had inherited the seer abilities that ran in her family.

-------

That night was the first full moon since Harry had arrived in the past, and as Harry feigned a deep sleep, he listened to the sounds of Sirius, James and Peter sneaking out under the Invisibility cloak, and their hushed curses as they tripped over various things that were strewn about the room.

As soon as they were gone, though, he moved over to the window, and spent the night watching three large shadows traipse around the lake, with a smaller one that was almost undetectable to the human eye.