Hello! I'd like to take this chance to say a HUGE thank you to AnetteRuby for her super long comment (I love you, I love you, I love you, you're so amazing, I love you xoxoxo)! It was extremely helpful and I've already found ways to include some of your ideas in the plot! ...Seriously, I cannot thank you enough, you had some great ideas and I twisted some of them around to make my story more interesting, so thanks again!

Also, this is a few chapters too late but thanks to Outofthisworldgalfor your suggestions for pranks, I'll be using some of those, too!

And some final thank you's to Fae0306 because she always shows her support and gives me ideas :) also to geetac for never failing to say that you like my chapter :) and to WalksThroughShadows: EEP thsnk you so much xD and finally to Lupinesence - you are AMAZING and I love it when you comment, also you support my ideas and wow thank you :):)

Disclaimer: Dis ain't ma shit

ENJOY!


Chapter 9

The rest of September was much of a blur. Remus had a mini-breakdown one night when he felt he needed his parents but they weren't there. When Harry thought about it, he realized that it was most likely the wolf missing his pack, so Harry vowed to become closer to Remus so Moony's pack could grow and he wouldn't feel as alone.

Only Harry and Peter witnessed the lapse of control, but Harry was worried that Peter would use the information against Remus as a way to get closer to the others. However, Harry seemed to have been making Peter out as worse than he was since the blond didn't mention the breakdown again after it happened.

But Pettigrew still attempted to take a spot within the Marauders, though it wasn't as obvious as before. He would follow them and try to talk more in conversations and give the group ideas for pranks – not good ones, but ideas nonetheless.

On the topic of pranks, the Marauders pulled off a few of them in the first month. One Wednesday, James and Sirius (and Peter, since he followed them) went around and hid in corners, where they casted a few spells at Slytherins (and a few Ravenclaws who got in the way) that changed their hair different colors. There were more, but many of them were unsuccessful or not worth mentioning. Harry knew they could do so many better pranks once they found the kitchen, passageways, and made the map. Unfortunately, he had no idea when any of those things happened.

So as everyone got used to being in Hogwarts and away from their families for so long, Harry focused on doing better his second time through. In classes, he always made sure to not get the spell right until after someone else did. James quickly took the top spot in transfiguration and Lily did the same in charms. Harry would let himself to an outstanding job on the homework assignments, but only did well enough in the practical portion to take the second spot for most classes. The only exception was DADA, where he willingly took the number one spot.

One thing Harry was somewhat upset about was at this point in time, there weren't any flying lessons. Harry figured it wouldn't be added to the curriculum for another few years, but still wanted to have another thing he happily showed off in. Although, when Harry thought about it, he decided he wouldn't try out for the quidditch team in second year since he didn't want to take the fame away from whoever would have been seeker originally.

But so September passed by relatively quickly and October started the same way. The full moon passed again and Remus used the excuse "my cousin is in the country for the first time in a few years so I have to visit him" to get away without suspicion. It worked well enough and the others didn't think twice before accepting that as the truth.

But soon October was also at an end and then it was Halloween – the last day of the tenth month and also Harry's least favorite day.

But Harry decided it was stupid to not like Halloween anymore; after all, his parents aren't dead in this timeline. It was because of this reason he could sleep well at night. After the war ended and Harry was left alone to deal with the losses, his nightmares only increased. He could rarely get more than two hours of sleep a night and a full night of dreamless sleep was unheard of.

But when he became Harry Potter: Brother of James, he was able to avoid the nightmares by reminding himself that it hasn't happened yet and I can stop it this time.

So this was going to be his first Halloween with both of his parents and he was going to spend it happy, damn it.

So on the morning of October 31st, Harry woke up and bounced, yes, bounced, over to James's bed to wake him up.

"James! James, James, Jaaaames!" When the boy refused to wake, Harry tried something else. "James! It's Halloween, wake up! We should do a big prank!" At this, the slightly older boy blinked open his eyes.

"Like what?" Harry grinned at his slurring words.

"I'm not sure. You think of something and I'll wake up Siri!" James grinned and shook his head.

"No way, I'm gonna wake him up!" Harry smiled and agreed. Peter woke up and Remus was just walking out of the bathroom when they heard a loud yell resembling something you would hear from Tarzan and they looked at the other half of the room. They were just in time to see James jump and go flying in the air from his bed to land on top of Sirius, who started shrieking.

"JAMES, GET OFF YOU BLOODY FATTIE!"

"What? No, I'm Harry!" James claimed and got an impish look on his face.

"No way, mate. I know you well enough to know you're James. As if the glasses weren't a big enough clue, the eyes and voice certainly gives it away." At that, Sirius pushed James off and pulled the covers back over his head.

"James, that's it!" Harry cried excitedly. "We can pretend to be each other today! We haven't done that in years!" James also looked excited and Harry rushed to pull out a book and find a spell that would change someone's eye color.

Everyone got ready as Harry found a spell and James practiced it until he decided he was good enough to do it on Harry. He focused and said the spell and was delighted when Harry's bright green eyes turned the clear hazel color James was known for. James then left to the bathroom for a mirror and change his eyes so they were Harry's startling green.

James went back and took off his glasses to hand to Harry. "Ugh, Merlin, I don't know how we're gonna do this. I can't see a bloody thing!" Harry slipped the glasses on and agreed.

"But c'mon, it'll be great! But your voice is a little lower than mine. I guess we'll just have to hope no one notices." The boys put their robes on and the group of five boys walked down to the common room to head for breakfast.

But once they got there, they were stopped by a frantic Lily Evans.

"Remus! Harry! I ran out of time and didn't do the last question for the potions homework! What did you get? Please, please, please help me!" Lily latched on to James-who-looks-like-Harry's arm and looked at him with pleading eyes. James blushed hotly and looked over to his brother for help. Harry shook his head with an amused smile and James realized he was on his own.

"I- uh- um- actually you know what? James understood it better than me. Ask him!" Harry glared but when Lily turned to him he forced a smile.

He opened his (James's) bag and searched for his (James's) defense homework. When he found it he looked for the answer (having to squint a little due to the glasses) then scrunched his nose.

"James, adding a powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood would not make a love potion." He deadpanned and James-who-looks-like-Harry cried out.

"What?! Yes it does, I'm sure of it!" Harry-who-looks-like-James thought back to his first ever potions lesson and shook his head.

"It makes the draught of the living death – it's a powerful sleeping potion. Write that down Lily, and Merlin, James, fix this!" Lily looked between the twins with an overwhelmed expression and Harry realized she must be incredibly confused. "Lily! Sorry, we're doing a prank today! We cast a spell on our eyes to make them a different color and I'm wearing James's glasses. But I'm Harry, I swear!"

"But shh, don't tell anyone!" James whispered and Lily nodded dumbly.

After that was cleared up, the group of students made their way to the great hall and sat down in their usual seats – with James and Harry sitting in each other's seat.

"So James," James-who-looks-like-Harry said to his twin. "How about them Cannons?"

Harry raised an eyebrow and answered him. "They're doing awful. So Harry, how do you think you did on that astronomy test?"

James narrowed his eyes at the game Harry was playing. "I think I flunked it. After all, I am pretty bad at school. But James, you probably got full marks!"

"Well I think I'm going to fail the charms test today! Because even though I think I'm a god, I can't do a charm right if my life depended on it!"

"Uh, guys?" Remus cut in when he realized many nearby students were watching with confused faces. "I think you're being a bit too obvious." Sirius snorted in agreement but did say anything, choosing to instead focus on inhaling his breakfast. James and Harry shut up but still mock-glared at each other.

After a long and confusing breakfast where everyone messed up with the names and how to hold a conversation, the group went off to their first class: potions. Since James typically worked with Sirius, Harry had to. Because of this, James worked with Remus. They worked together fine but not as well as Harry and Remus did. But before they could put in the final ingredient and stir the finished potion, Harry saw Snape stand up.

Now, Harry had plenty of experience with Draco sabotaging his potions so he recognized the signs immediately. Snape looked over at their potion with contempt and stood. He went to the front of the room and handed in his potion, and Harry saw him shift something in his palm while passed their area again.

Then Snape "tripped" and Harry-who-looks-like-James watched as the crushed claws went flying. His hands shot out, desperately trying to catch the offending ingredient, but he wasn't quick enough. He only managed to catch a few as the rest fell into the potion. The liquid began to bubble dangerously and Harry pulled Sirius away and behind him.

"Get on your chair!" He shouted and James, Sirius and Remus did. He, however, was too far from his chair and couldn't make it there on time and instead his leg was hit by a large portion of the overflowing potion.

There was a lot of smoke and yells from his friends, but Harry was instead focusing on the pain in his leg. Harry had to refrain from snorting at the absurdity of the situation. Nothing good ever happens on Halloween, does it? In his first year there was the troll incident where he was hurt on his leg… in the exact same spot.

Harry stilled. Was this how it was going to work? Was he going to have to deal the injuries he gained from his first life? Was Fate just playing a game with him?

"Harry! Are you okay? You have to get to the nurse!" Harry nodded without actually thinking as his mind was whirling. He hasn't gotten any injuries from his past life before in this one. Did he only get the ones from Voldemort? He figured that must be it. Then he actually heard what Sirius said.

"Siri! I'm supposed to be James!" If he was going to be hurt then he'd be damned if their prank would be ruined too.

Sirius was told to take James (Harry) to the hospital wing so they stood and Harry offered a reassuring smile to James and Remus as they left the room. They didn't talk much on the way there, though Sirius switched between frantically making sure the raven-haired boy was okay and waving the arm that wasn't supporting Harry around and ranting about Snape.

Madam Pomfrey fixed his burns up quickly but insisted on keeping him for a few hours for the swelling to go down. She shooed Sirius back to class and gave him orders not to come back before lunch.

Sirius did as he was told and Harry was left with a few hours to think quietly about what happened. However, he wasn't alone for more than five minutes when he heard a voice that sounded startlingly familiar.

You must change the future.

"Fate?" Harry asked, though he was already sure it was her.

Yes, Harry Potter. You have to change the way events planned out.

"Isn't that what I'm doing?"

Yes, but you're changing yourself, as well.

"Am I not allowed to do that? Am I not allowed to be happy?"

You are of course allowed happiness, young wizard. But you must understand: you have to remain much like yourself. You have let yourself become someone new; you are forgetting your past friends, your past life.

"But I don't want to remember. Ron and Hermione will have new friends and will lead a new life without me."

Then you must remember your time at Hogwarts. Do not get too comfortable in a safe home, young wizard. Tom Riddle is on the rise here, you must remember what it was like to fight him, so I will remind you.

"So are you telling me that I'm going to get all of the injuries he caused me?" This sucks.

One way or another, yes.

"And I suppose there's no way out of this?" Were his friends going to thing he was the most unlucky person ever or the most attacked? Or were they just going to think he was clumsy?

This is how it is supposed to happen, young wizard.

Then the voice faded out and Harry groaned. Why him? Why did he have the worst luck? Why couldn't he just have parents and a brother and friends? Why is there always a price?

Harry pushed away his thoughts and willed himself to sleep, but it evaded him. He resigned himself to three long, uneventful hours in the infirmary.


Harry looked up from his herbology textbook by the opening of the infirmary doors.

"Harry!" James yelled and moved towards his bed. Sirius, Remus and Peter followed him and Harry sat up straighter.

"Hey guys, how was the rest of potions?"

"It was awful! Snivellus didn't even get in trouble!" Harry looked up in surprise.

"Snivellus?"

"Yeah, it's the name we gave Snape because he kept sniveling from the smoke – apparently his big nose is too sensitive!" James and Sirius laughed madly while Peter gave off insane giggles. "So, brother-dearest, how have you survived without me for so long?"

Harry pretended to wipe a tear. "Oh, it's been dreadful! It's too quiet without you! I don't know how I managed without an arrogant, wanna-be Merlin around me at all times!" James smacked Harry over the head as Madam Pomfrey walked out of her office.

"Mr. Potter, please refrain yourself from causing any bodily harm to my patients!"

James snorted and leaned over to whisper to Harry quietly. "Do you know if she thinks I'm you?" Harry thought about it for a minute before frowning.

"Well, I never told her who I was. Don't even think about giving me a bad reputation!" James smirked and leaned back to his original position.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Harry snorted. Right.

"So Harry, are you okay?" Remus asked and Harry wiggled his toes and moved his knees before nodding.

"Yeah, I feel great. May I go, Madam Pomfrey?" The matron looked at him over glasses before nodding sharply.

"Very well, Mr. Potter, just please be more careful around potions." Harry agreed obediently and left for lunch with his friends. Harry took the glasses off and rubbed his eyes

"Merlin, James, these are making me blind!" James reached over and put the glasses on and sighed in relief.

"This is so much better. We are never doing this again." Harry agreed wholeheartedly and took the glasses back as they entered the hall.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful other than during DADA. Harry-who-looks-like-James was partnered with Sirius when, as a warm-up, everyone had to do the blocking pinching hexes activity again. Harry purposely casted one at Snape, but made it look like it wasn't him. He highly expected James and Sirius did too. And if he saw Remus with his wand pointed towards the future potions master at one point, he didn't say anything.

The feast was great and Harry witnessed Remus eat four and a half whole bars of chocolate before stuffing another six in his bag for later. No one realized that James and Harry were actually Harry and James until halfway through the feast, James performed the counter curse and Harry gave him back his glasses. Mary Macdonald asked in surprise if they were like that the whole day and when they confirmed it, she was suitably impressed.

Everyone else around the group complimented them on a prank well done and looked curiously at their faces. Harry guessed they were wondering if they had anything to do with the other pranks that had been played so far in the year.

Harry figured it was a pretty good Halloween despite the potions problem and decided it wasn't a bad way to finish off October.