"That was surreal," James said when Harry finished talking. "It sounds like a bedtime story, doesn't it? Time turners and Dementors... Sirius being friends with a cat."

"It sounds like a joke. An escaped convict, a werewolf and a cat walk into a bar - " Sirius threw in.

Remus snorted, "That's terrible. You just called the Shrieking Shack a bar."

" - walk into a haunted house," Sirius continued as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"And attempt to placate the children by rolling up their sleeves and saying there will be only one murder taking place," Harry said with an eye roll which made the Marauders laugh.

"We all knew about Sirius' drama queen tendencies - " James said, "But Moony surprised us all," Sirius finished in a manner that reminded Harry of Fred and George.

"You know what they say – It's always the quiet ones," Remus replied with a shrug and a smile.

"Or the nerdy ones! Look at that Hermione girl and the time travelling! No, scratch that, punching Malfoy was cooler. I wish I'd seen that."

Remus nodded, "Harry, your friends sound great, I'd really like you to introduce us."

"Sure thing, I'll arrange it as soon as possible. Would you like them to come to this universe or are you going to come to mine?" Harry said sarcastically.

"Pup, you forget that this universe already has a Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger of its own," Sirius said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, I was being silly. I'll invite them over for tea, shall I? There's just this minor inconvenience of them never having met me before."

"Ah, the witty comebacks are there too! Behold the Mini-Prongs!," Sirius said while ruffling Harry's hair, causing both Harry and James to blush.

"If you want to tell certain people who you really are Harry, that's fine, just as long as people from the Ministry and the Prophet don't find out. At the moment only the three of us and Dumbledore know, but judging by your friends' characters from the story, they could be trusted with your secret if you want to share it," Remus explained.

Harry pondered this for a moment and then nodded, "That sounds great, I'd like to see how everyone is faring here. Besides, I don't like lying and I am no good at it anyway."

Sirius snapped his fingers, "But don't forget that you know loads about everyone while they know nothing about you. You have so much pranking material there!"

"Good point," Harry said, thinking of his encounter with Malfoy earlier that day. He expected Remus to start scolding Sirius for encouraging him to play with people like that, but he said nothing. It got through Harry's head that he should stop thinking of Remus as a male version of Hermione, he was Mr Moony after all. That in turn reminded him that he forgot to mention the Map in his story. No matter, he'll tell them about it another time. When he was retelling the events of his third year, he was careful not to say anything too hurtful – mainly the rumours that were going around about Sirius at the time and the fact that Harry believed them. He also kept the form of his Patronus to himself, not being quite ready to share something so personal so soon. In order to lighten up the mood, he mentioned things like Hermione's punch, Remus' lessons, McGonagall's feud with Trelawaney and the Firebolt that Sirius sent him for Christmas. James asked for the account of his Quidditch matches and Harry, glad that they won the Cup that year, did his best to describe them in as much detail as possible. Of course, describing the confrontation in the Shack was the hardest not only for him, but for everyone listening as well. He almost had a heart attack earlier that day when Remus had asked him if he was raised by Sirius and telling him that - No, he wasn't - because Sirius had been in Azkaban seemed like something he would never be able to do. Now that he explained everything he was glad - it felt like a huge weight was lifted off his chest.

A tapping on the window could be heard and James got up to let the owl in. "It's from Dumbledore," he said, "He's inviting us for lunch tomorrow at Hogwarts. Says he'd like us to stay for a couple of hours if we have time – Harry, that's practically a message to you to save your vocal chords for tomorrow. I guess you'll be repeating what you told us now."

"No way," Harry said, "You guys can tell him about it if you want, once was enough for me."

"Well from what I've heard earlier about your Defence professors I would think that you have other stories to share," Sirius returned.

Harry just gave a non committal "Mhm-hm" in response.

"I see Harry is already saving his vocal cords. Prongs, as far as I am concerned, you can tell Albus that we'll be there – I need to ask him for his opinion on some of the theories we've discussed earlier."

"Oh Prongs, can you pass me some parchment and your quill and ink once you've finished," Sirius added, "I need to write to Dora and see how's she doing. I'll invite her for drinks or maybe even dinner tomorrow."

"Padfoot, please don't – you know – make any suggestive comments or play a matchmaker. I won't come with you unless you promise you won't. You too Prongs."

"I won't say anything! Harry said he wanted to see her. Right, Harry?"

"Of course!"

"Oh, Harry you are not allowed to bring out those pictures or anything like that! Imagine how awkward that would be!"

"Moony, relax. We are not idiots, we'll behave. Harry wanted to see Tonks and that's why we are going – believe it or not, embarrassing you is not our goal," James said soothingly.

"Speaking of the pictures," Harry said seriously, "Is there a way of making copies? Because I'd leave them to you if you want to keep them, but I'd rather duplicate them so I can have them as well."

"You can use Geminio," James replied, "but the copies would deteriorate faster than the original. We could ask someone who works for the Prophet how they do it."

Harry's mind immediately jumped to Luna Lovegood. "That's a great idea. If you don't know anyone personally I could try and get it touch with a friend of mine – her dad is the editor of The Quibbler so she may be able to help me." Harry reached into his pouch searching for the pictures when his hand brushed against something warm. Confused, he pulled out his DA coin and around the edge, instead of the date and time of the meetings that used to appear were the words "where r u. worried. r and h." Harry's jaw dropped. He quickly tapped the coin and sent "long story. i am safe."

He chuckled and said, "If any of you doubted Hermione, let me show you the way of communication that she created that works across different universes."

He started explaining how the coins were made and used, but was interrupted when his coin heated up again and the words changed to "patronuses and owls". Harry waited until the message cleared and the new one took its place, "ignore us. feared u died." His heart tightened. He imagined how freaked out they must have been. Ron and Hermione were not even in the UK so the rest of the Weasleys must have went to Grimmauld Place to try to find him and when the spells and owls ignored his existence they thought he died – and he was only gone for a day. Once again, Harry was rendered speechless by how much other people cared for him. He sent back "just us or da reading" and got a quick reply that said "just us". He then sent a series of messages "parallel universe – pulled by accident – dad remus sirius here – need to find a way back". He got back a "what" and a "bloody hell" which made him insanely happy because even in this situation their reactions were predictable.

"So are you going to spend the rest of your stay here ignoring us because you can talk to your friends," Sirius asked, sounding amused.

"They thought I died. I need to explain the situation to them, which is harder than it sounds when you only have enough space for a few words per message."

True to his words, he spent an hour explaining how he got here. Hermione asked some questions that he couldn't answer so Remus did. Then James and Sirius wanted to know what was Australia like and the whole thing grew into a casual but painfully slow and very bizarre conversation.

After a few hours like that, Remus stretched and said, "Well folks, I spent the previous night looking up those runes instead of sleeping so I am ready to pass out."

"Same here. Just keeping my eyes open is painful," James said with a yawn. Harry noticed that he had dark circles beneath his eyes and wondered how long did he stay awake after Harry went to bed last night.

"I am not tired at all," Harry said.

"Me neither," Sirius returned, "Moony could sleep in the guest room and you and I can stay here and transfigure the couch and the sofa into beds later."

"That works," Remus said and the matter was settled. Harry and Sirius talked late into the night – this time around mostly Harry asking questions and Sirius talking about all sorts of things like his job and some of the exciting cases he worked on in the past, his favourite Quidditch team and his years at Hogwarts. Once, he mentioned Regulus offhandedly and Harry deemed that he should tell him that his brother didn't die as a coward like he thought. He described his own trip to the cave with Dumbledore and everything Kreacher told him afterwards, but he didn't tell Sirius that the locket was a horcrux – instead he called it a magical artefact that was important for Voldemort's downfall. He told him that he'll explain it further tomorrow when they meet Dumbledore and that the real locket was probably still in his ancestral home.

"Thank you for telling me," Sirius said when Harry was done. His head was laid on Harry's shoulder who in turn had his arm around Sirius, holding him in a half-embrace. He knew from experience that just being there provided more comfort for someone who was mourning than any words could. They sat in companiable silence for a while and eventually Harry dozed off.