Away and Back
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

James

Sirius had told him that they had to be at Fairy Alley at six o'clock in the morning at the latest. He cast a tempus charm, seeing that it was only four. 'Oh well, that gives me the time to go and get a quick glimpse at our old home,' he thought and headed outside to apparate to Godric's Hollow, knowing that his father had closed off the fireplace now that his parents had decided to accompany them to the future.

An instant later, he stood in front of a ruin. 'Oh Merlin, it's true. It really happened just like Sirius told us. If he and the others hadn't come from the future, Lily and I'd be dead now.' Only now, he could really grasp the situation. Only now, he could really understand. 'It's a different matter to hear someone explain something to me or to see it with my own eyes,' he thought, horrified. He apparated back to the manor, feeling incredibly grateful to his best friend and his already fourteen-year-old son, who was much too grown up for his age. 'At least much less childish than Sirius and I were at that age,' he thought, as he made his way back into their bedroom, intending to make up to his wife, knowing that she was suffering most from the loss of their baby son.

"Harry's a brilliant child, Lils, and I promise that we'll work on having another baby soon," he whispered, smiling when his wife turned around to face him with a small smile playing on her lips.

"I'd like that," she whispered back, allowing him to pull her into a passionate kiss.

"I'm afraid that we don't have much time now," James informed her, as he slowly pulled away, very much regretting the fact. "We need to get ready for our time-travel."

Draco

Draco was happy that the Potters of all generations had simply accepted him as Harry's friend and had not harassed him because of being a Malfoy. During the week of their stay in the past, he had felt as comfortable at Potter Manor as he had felt in the future. 'Thank Merlin,' he thought. 'It's almost as if I had a completely new family, and Harry's parents and grandparents are really nice. I wonder who will be the boss in the future. So far, it was Sirius, but now that the grandparents join us, it might be them just like here in this time.'

He was so deep in thoughts that he only realised that they had arrived at Fairy Alley, when they were standing right in front of the Imp Cauldron.

As soon as he showed himself, the travel imp, who had done all the talking with him, appeared in front of him.

"Hello," he said, chuckling. "We'll be ready to leave shortly."

"Thank you, that would be nice. Since we came back in time seven hundred and ten weeks, we now need to go back to the future seven hundred and nine weeks to arrive just when we left," Draco replied, frowning. 'Something's not right here,' he thought, observing the travel imps that seemed to belong to their group.

"I'm not sure but is it possible that they're a bit drunk?" he asked, glancing at Harry, who was standing between his parents looking at him in clear expectation.

Before anyone could offer a response, however, they were called towards the Knight Bus and eagerly climbed up, gathering on the first two beds.

"It'll take about two hours, but they drive really carefully," Draco informed their new time-travellers, only to reach for something to hold on to, when the bus made an unexpected huge jump.

"Oh well, they did, when we came here," Sirius added, smirking.

Hermione

'Somehow, this doesn't feel right,' Hermione thought in confusion. During their travel to the past, the bus had merely been jumping back in time but did not change the place. Whenever she had looked out of the window, they had been in front of the Imp Cauldron. This time, however, the scenery changed after each jump. Moreover, the jumps were much rougher, and in the meantime, everyone had decided that it might be safer for them to lie on a bed. 'We should be there soon though,' she thought, wondering why the way back was so different.

Suddenly, an idea crossed her mind. 'Oh Merlin, I hope they're not really drunk like Draco said earlier. Who knows where they'd take us if they were.'

Due to the lack of sleep during the previous night, she could not help drifting off to sleep like several members of their group. She only woke up, when the bus came to a sudden halt.

"Where are we?" she heard Sirius ask and hurriedly sat up to look through the window.

"Hogwarts," she blurted out, realising that the Knight Bus had stopped right in front of where the gates were supposed to be.

She hurriedly climbed out of the bus, followed by everyone else.

Draco immediately talked to the travel imp who did the speaking, before he translated for them. "They are drunk and sleepy and want to remain here for a while to take a rest. They couldn't find the Imp Cauldron, so they took us to Hogwarts, which is obvious, but they don't know the year. So I've told them that we'd check that out and be back sometime during the day if it's not the proper date. We can always sleep in the bus until they're ready."

From the corners of her eyes, Hermione saw how the travel imps climbed onto the bus making themselves comfortable on the passenger beds that seemed overly large for the small creatures.

"Well, let's check out Hogwarts then. It can't be so bad," James decided, and everyone agreed.

'It can't be so bad?' Hermione silently repeated in disbelief. 'Voldemort and his Death Eaters could have taken Hogwarts over for all that I know.' However, she did not voice her concern and slowly trailed behind the others towards the castle, smiling, when Amelia fell into step with her.

Suddenly, a sharp voice from behind made them stop in their tracks. "Who are you, and what do you want here?"

Hermione turned around, completely shocked when realisation set in. She knew the man, who seemed about the age of Lily and James from many paintings and books. "Professor Slytherin," she spoke up, causing everyone else to gasp.

"That I am," the man replied, still sounding grumpy. "And who are you?"

This time, James was the first to reply. "We're time travellers from the future. We didn't intend to come here, but the travel imps apparently took us nine hundred years into the past instead of seven hundred weeks into the future," he explained in a gentle voice. "Will you allow us access to Hogwarts? I'm certain that each of us is very eager to speak with you and the other founders."

"So you know about us," Slytherin stated.

"Of course, sir," Hermione replied, eagerly. "You're said to be the best Potions Masters of all times, sir."

Slytherin smirked. "Well then come in and meet my colleagues."

'Thank Merlin, he sounds less grumpy now,' Hermione thought, as they entered Hogwarts, which looked the same as in their own time with only the many portraits missing from the walls.

Harry

Harry trailed into the Great Hall behind the others, absolutely not feeling in the mood of spending a day in the time of the Founders of Hogwarts. Usually, he would have been thrilled about such an opportunity; however, right now, he wanted nothing more than to return to his own time and get his parents and grandparents settled.

He absentmindedly listened, when the Founders and the time-travellers introduced each other, before Sirius told the Founders everything about the fateful Halloween in 1981, about Remus, the werewolf, and Peter, his so-called friend, who had betrayed Lily and James. Finally, he informed them about their time travel to prevent his best friend and his wife from being killed.

At one stage, Salazar interrupted him in apparent disbelief. "A werewolf?" he queried, quirking an eyebrow. "Why don't you heal him from lycanthropy?"

"Heal him?" Lily blurted out. "Do you have a cure for lycanthropy in this time?"

"Of course," Salazar informed her, smirking. "I'm sure, because I invented it myself."

His mother looked as if Christmas had come early, when she asked the Founder, "Would you perhaps be willing to teach me? Your cure has been lost over the centuries, and many Potions masters have tried to invent one without success."

"Are you able to brew difficult potions?" Salazar asked, strictly.

"My wife is a Potions mistress," James spoke up in a firm voice. "If anyone will be able to brew it, it's her."

When Salazar left the Great Hall with Lily in tow, a girl, who introduced herself as Ceridwen Hufflepuff, suggested to Harry, Hermione and Draco, "Shall I show you some secret places of Hogwarts?"

"I'd love that," Hermione was the first to respond, and the three time-travellers followed the girl out of the Great Hall, where the others changed the topic to the time of the Founders.

Ceridwen knew the castle better than anyone else, because she had assisted the Founders building bits and parts of Hogwarts. She showed them several secret passages and all kinds of shortcuts.

"If you use this shortcut here, it'll never take more than five minutes to go from one part of the castle to any other," she explained, showing them a small room, which was completely void of furniture. It was a simple stone room that held six doors, however, one leading to the headmaster's office, one to the entrance hall and each of the others leading to one particular house.

Much too soon for Harry's liking, Ceridwen informed him that it was dinner time and that they had to return to the Great Hall.

James

For a while, James had listened to the conversation mostly led by Helga, Rowena and Amelia, before Godric suddenly addressed him and asked him to join him in his office.

James followed the Founder, whom he knew to be his many times great grandfather, through the empty castle. "Don't you have any students here right now?" he enquired, causing Godric to chuckle.

"Usually yes, but today is Christmas Day, so all students have returned to their homes," he explained, before he asked, "Does Hogwarts still look like this in the future?"

"Yes, it's exactly the same," James confirmed. "The only thing is that the walls are mostly covered with portraits of people, who have been at Hogwarts at one or the other time. The headmaster's office is the same, too. All the former headmasters' portraits are hanging behind the headmaster's desk. Most of the time, they seem to be sleeping though," he added, grinning.

"In fact," Godric began to speak once they were sitting at his desk, "I'm really glad that you came. You probably know that Rowena is my wife, and that Salazar is married to Helga."

James stared at the Founder in surprise. "No sir, I didn't know that," he admitted in a small voice.

Godric smiled. "Well, as things are, you're the heir of Rowena and myself."

James nodded, knowing that he was a descendant of Godric Gryffindor.

"Your wife Lily is in fact the heir of Helga and Salazar," Godric continued, causing James to stare at the Founder, wide-eyed. "That makes your son Harry the first heir of all four of us. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," James replied, nodding. "My children will be descendants of all four Founders. That's a huge honour. It's a very sudden revelation though."

Godric chuckled. "That's all right. Apparently, you couldn't know that bit of information. Anyway, I'd like to officially announce my will stating that Hogwarts will belong to Harry Potter from the year when he takes his NEWTs, if you still have them in the future, onwards. He should, of course, take over the headmaster's position at that time."

James shook his head in confusion. "Thank you Godric, I'm sure Harry will be thrilled to hear that. I'm afraid that we must ask him about the year though. As you know, my wife and I have never been to the time in the future, where he comes from."

"I'll ask him at dinner time; that's fine," Godric decided. "There's another point that I'd like to ask of your son."

James looked at the Founder with apprehension.

"Seeing that time travel is possible, I'd like your son to come here from time to time to study with us. You might not know this either, but my wife is a Seer, and she has seen that Harry will have a difficult time fighting against the evil in his time. We'd like to prepare him for that. Are you as his father all right with him travelling to our time every now and then?"

"If that's what Harry wants, I don't mind," James replied, knowing that under no circumstances he could refuse his ancestor.

Hermione

Right on time for dinner, Lily returned to the Great Hall, showing a small phial with a light brown liquid.

"Salazar taught me to brew the wolvescure, and he even gave me the recipe. We can cure the werewolves," she said, seeming very happy.

"Are the ingredients all available in our time?" Euphemia Potter enquired with apparent interest.

"Yes," Lily confirmed, smiling.

"Mrs. Potter," Hermione spoke up, eagerly, "would you mind teaching me how to brew it? Maybe I could assist if you need to brew many batches."

"Of course, but you can just call me Lily," the red-haired witch replied, gently.

Hermione looked up in surprise, when as soon as dinner ended, Professor Slytherin motioned Harry to follow him. "Since I heard that you're a Parselmouth, I'm going to take you to the Chamber of Secrets," the Founder informed him, ushering the boy out of the Great Hall, much to Hermione's horror.

tbc...