A/N: Thanks to Nauze, as always, for the beta. Despite my gratitude, I will not be writing that Drarry epic you've been pleading for any time soon.
As he trudged out of Hogwarts castle with Ron and Hermione, brooms in hand, Harry pondered the bizarre scene that he'd witnessed mere minutes ago.
He'd been sat at supper, all set to head to the Quidditch pitch, when his dad had mentioned his nickname, causing George and Fred to look as if Christmas had come early. Fred had blurted something about a map before his dad had forcefully put a hand over his mouth, then muttered something in the twin's ear so as not to be overheard. Seconds later, the twins and his parents were exiting the Great Hall together. The three boys looked very excited while his mum appeared to be very confused. The only insight that had been provided was James offering a quick, "We'll catch you up later, Harry, enjoy your fly," before the quartet disappeared out of sight.
He was drawn out of his musings by the sound of his friends, once again, arguing.
"He's a cat, Ron. That's what cats do. They chase rats-"
"And now Scabbers is gone; probably eaten by that bloody menace of yours."
"So I'm not allowed to have a pet because you own a rat! Crookshanks would never actually do anything to that lump, and you don't have a shred of-"
"Enough!" Harry finally interjected, grateful that he would be resolving this particular point of contention in a few minutes. He did his best to not think about the fact that the pair would most likely find something else to argue about soon enough.
"Don't tell me you're taking her side-"
"I'm not taking anyone's side," Harry interrupted once again; "I'm tired of hearing you two have a go at each other. We're meant to be out here helping Hermione with her flying."
At his words, Ron grinned and Hermione looked as if she wanted to flee. Apparently arguing with Ron had served as a nice distraction for Hermione to avoid thinking about what she'd agreed to do that evening.
"It will be alright, Hermione, I promise. I know it's scary but-"
"I am not scared!" Hermione replied in defiance, "I just think it is a pointless exercise."
Harry had brought up the idea of helping with her flying when Ron hadn't been around and, though hesitant, Hermione had come around without too much coaxing. The news that he would be dropping Divination in favor of Arithmancy had done wonders in putting his friend in a good mood and by the end of their discussion Hermione was actually looking forward to getting a bit more comfortable on a broom. But the Scabbers conversation and the pair's sniping had now effectively squashed all of her enthusiasm.
Ron chuckled and Harry shot him a glare. Having to mediate between his two friends was going to make it exceedingly difficult to simply get them into the air so they could have their discussion. It was clear Ron would not be helping in the lesson; if anything he would be smiling and laughing at Hermione's struggles as a way to take out his aggravation related to her cat. He needed a plan to cut through the nonsense.
He leaned forward and whispered in Hermione's ear. "James didn't ask me to go flying just for fun; he needed to tell me a secret away from everyone else. That's the real reason I wanted to go flying; so I could tell you two the secret. It's important."
Harry pulled back and it was as if a switch had been flipped in his best friend. The aggravation and annoyance were gone, replaced by excitement and anticipation. He realized he'd struck on the perfect motivation to get her in the air.
Ron looked at him in confusion, clearly curious as to what words he had managed to come up with that had stopped Hermione from engaging in their beloved pastime. He looked a bit put out at her change in attitude.
"Shall we begin?" he asked, drawing a determined nod from Hermione, and even more confusion from Ron.
A few minutes later the trio was hovering in the air, safely away from prying ears. He was fairly certain that Hermione had never scaled to such heights before, but she'd made it there safely without too much problem. She maintained an iron grip on her broom as she waited for him to speak.
"So what do you reckon? Start off with a few laps before-"
"Shh-" Hermione admonished Ron to be quiet, her eyes never leaving Harry. Ron was all set to retort but Harry beat him to the punch, remembering the advice his dad had given him.
"I'm going to tell you something. It's going to sound mental but I need you to act normal. No yelling or arguing. Just pretend we're talking about the weather or something."
Ron opened his mouth to speak before he was once again shushed by Hermione. Harry nodded his thanks and pulled out his wand, casting the privacy spell his dad taught them in case one of his friends started yelling. "Muffliato."
If anything, his casting of the privacy spell had increased Hermione's anticipation of what he was about to share even further. Between her excitement and Ron's confusion, he now, most definitely, had a captive audience.
"Sirius Black is innocent. My parents have spoken to him and heard his side of the story; yesterday, when they were in London. Remember that dog I told you about? The one that looked like the Grim? It was him. Sirius Black is an animagus."
"They met up with Black?" Hermione nearly screeched and Harry was grateful for his dad's advice regarding the spell.
"No yelling! We need to act normal," he admonished.
Hermione instantly became embarrassed before speaking much more quietly. "That was really dangerous! And Harry, he could have attacked you!"
As he thought on it, Hermione did have a point. He'd been so enthralled by his dad's tale, he hadn't even asked about how they'd managed a meet-up.
"I wasn't in any danger. Sirius was in Little Whinging because he was checking on me; making sure I was safe. He escaped from Azkaban to protect me. Even Lily believes him."
"Protect you? From who?" Ron asked.
"Remember, no yelling," Harry reminded once again before supplying the answer. He'd had several hours to process the information but Harry still couldn't quite believe the word that was about to come out of his mouth.
"Scabbers."
The remainder of their discussion had gone surprisingly well. The casting of Muffliato had been an excellent suggestion, as Ron let out a yelp of protest at Harry's initial revelation. But after he'd calmed down and listened to Harry's explanation, and the news sunk in that his family had unknowingly housed a murderer for the past twelve years, they'd had a proper discussion of all the relevant facts.
Harry's news had effectively eliminated any animosity between his friends and Hermione, sensing that Ron was in need of a distraction, actually prompted him for help with her flying once they'd finished their discussion. Their conversation as he instructed her was the most civil they'd managed since their return to Hogwarts, although that wasn't saying much.
To Harry's frustration, he hadn't been able to receive a proper update from James or Lily for several days. Apart from meals, the pair had made themselves very scarce. And because Pettigrew could have been listening in, he'd been too afraid to even hint at asking about what they were up to regarding the rat. When he tried to ask about the twins his dad had told him a made up story about him carving his nickname onto the various toilets around the castle and the twins being excited about meeting the perpetrator. According to James, the Hogwarts toilets had protective enchantments in place to prevent such a thing from happening, but the Marauders had cracked the code. While the story sounded believable, George and Fred seemed a bit too excited over such a feat. Based on his experience, it would take much more than defacing a few toilets to impress the twins that much. When he'd asked them, their smug grins had been infuriating.
"Your dad asked us not to talk about it," Fred replied, looking falsely regretful.
"We always find it best to respect our elders' wishes. They are your mum and dad after all," George added for no reason other than to annoy him. It had worked spectacularly.
Despite how overwhelming the sudden barrage of new coursework had been, Harry was grateful for the distraction that his switch to Arithmancy had provided. His head of house and Professor Vector had both been quite excited when he'd met with them to discuss his transfer into the class Sunday night. He'd missed the first two sessions of term but Hermione had volunteered to help get him up to speed by the next scheduled class on Thursday morning. After working through his other homework as quickly as he could manage each day, the last three evenings had been spent awash in numerology charts and equations as Hermione walked him through what they'd covered so far. And Hermione, being Hermione, was adamant that they work a bit ahead to be prepared for Thursday's session. It had been a few years since he'd studied Maths in school but she'd been pleased with how well he'd taken to the subject so far.
Despite the fact that she'd volunteered, Harry had felt bad about monopolizing so much of Hermione's time over the last few evenings. Given her insane class schedule, Harry couldn't quite fathom how she was managing her actual homework. He'd asked her about it during their first tutoring session but she had laughed off the question and immediately changed the subject, launching into a dissertation on the magical properties of the number three.
They were now on the third evening of Hermione's tutoring and it seemed to Harry that the stress was starting to wear on his friend. She didn't appear overly tired but definitely seemed nervous and distracted, much more so than the prior two evenings. It struck him that she had actually put off her other homework to help him and falling behind on her schoolwork was most likely beginning to weigh on her. Hermione hated falling behind.
"I've made loads of progress and Professor Vector said it would be fine if I wasn't totally caught up by tomorrow, Hermione. If you have other work to do-"
"It's fine, Harry," she interrupted. "I'm all caught up on my other subjects."
"How?" Harry blurted unthinkingly. Apart from a few breaks to go to the bathroom, he had spent the last three evenings with Hermione and he'd barely seen her touch any of her other work.
His question seemed to ratchet up his friend's anxiety tenfold. She pulled out her wand and cast Muffliato before leaning forward. "I have to tell you something…something that you'd sort out eventually now that you are taking Arithmancy with me. Professor McGonagall gave me permission to tell you, but you can't tell anyone else; not even Ron." She looked very serious.
Hermione tugged on the thin gold chain around her neck. For a brief moment, he saw a flash of something that looked like an hourglass before Hermione quickly shoved it back under her robes. "I was given a Time-Turner before the start of term so I could repeat hours. I've been using it to attend several lessons at the same time and to keep up with my assignments."
As Harry processed her words Hermione's massive class schedule and bizarre disappearing and reappearing act suddenly made sense. He'd felt properly proud of himself for taking on the additional challenge of Arithmancy, but that paled in comparison to his friend's borderline insane ambition.
"So you've been helping me with Arithmancy, then going back in time and doing your other homework?" he asked.
"The opposite, actually," she began, "after supper, when I said I had to go to the loo, I went to the Library."
Harry thought that Arithmancy had been a bit difficult to comprehend, but it was nothing compared to the information he was now trying to process. "So you're saying there is another version of you sat in the Library right now?"
Hermione nodded. "I worked in the Library, walked back to Gryffindor right before curfew, used the Time-Turner to go back a few hours, and I've been with you ever since."
Harry's head throbbed as he absorbed the information and tried to fathom going through a similar process on a daily basis. He suddenly felt very tired on his friend's behalf.
"Why?" he blurted.
Hermione looked a bit embarrassed. "I wanted to take every class being offered. They are all so fascinating; even Muggle Studies has been really helpful in learning about-" she began before suddenly stopping herself. "Never mind that, I need you to promise me you won't tell anyone. Professor McGonagall went to a lot of trouble with the Ministry so I could have a Time-Turner and I promised I wouldn't tell anyone else or abuse it. I'm only allowed to use it for my studies and I was allowed to make an exception the last few days because I was helping you-"
Harry interrupted, suddenly struck with a thought. "We could use it to go back in time before Scabbers ran off!" he said in a whispered hush.
"Haven't you been listening?" Hermione asked, clearly aggravated, "I can only go back a few hours at a time and I'm only allowed to use it for my studies! Besides, it's too late. If I'd been able to do that we'd already have Scabbers. Remember our conversation on the train? Our history has already happened. There is nothing I can do to change that."
His head began to throb as he tried to work out Hermione's explanation. "So you're saying, because we haven't caught Scabbers, it means we didn't go back in time and catch him?"
"Exactly," Hermione answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Harry decided to take her word for it in lieu of scrambling his brain even further. He realized she was looking at him expectantly.
"Don't worry," Harry reassured, "I won't say anything, and I can help you out if Ron asks any more questions." At his words it looked like the weight of the world had been taken off of his friend's shoulders.
"I wished you'd told me on Monday," he continued. "With all your work you didn't have to spend so much time on me-"
"No!" Hermione interrupted before becoming embarrassed. "It's been nice getting to help you, and I'm really happy that you're taking Arithmancy."
Harry thought about what his dad had said the other day…about how he and his friends helped push each other to be better. He suddenly felt severely lacking in that department. If anything, Hermione had thrived in spite of him and Ron doing their best to pull her down to their level.
"Be honest. Those few hours in the library weren't enough to finish all of your other work, was it?"
Hermione looked as if she were considering whether to actually be honest with him. "Not quite," she finally admitted, "but it's fine. If I need a bit more time I can just go back a few more hours and work in my dormitory before the other girls go to sleep."
Now that he knew the truth of the situation, several observations he'd made since the start of term came to the forefront of his consciousness. Hermione had seemed a bit more distracted and tired this year, most likely because of the extra hours she'd been adding to each day. While he couldn't help push her academically, he realized he could and should help in other ways. He reached over and closed her Arithmancy book.
"Harry!"
"Work on your other assignments," he interrupted. "I can use your notes to keep going and if I have any questions I'll ask. And if you ever need the cloak to sneak off to an empty classroom, let me know. Okay?"
It looked like Hermione was about to protest before she caught herself. "Thanks, Harry," she managed as she pulled out her Runes textbook.
"You're welcome," he answered, realizing how nice it was to be the one being thanked for a change.
Harry finally earned a reprieve Thursday evening when his parents approached him in the Gryffindor common room.
"Fancy a walk, Harry?" his dad asked.
His two friends moved to go with him but were stopped by Lily.
"Just Harry tonight. We both thought it would be nice to spend a bit of time alone with our son."
He couldn't quite pinpoint why, perhaps it was her warm smile, or her soft tone, or the fact that for the first time their actual familial relationship had been vocalized, but she sounded like a proper mother. His mother. It was an odd feeling, odd but not unwelcome.
Her matronly magic had apparently worked on his friends as well, as they took their seats and reluctantly nodded their agreement.
"See you later," he called to Ron and Hermione as he exited through the portrait hole. "What's going on?" he asked as soon as the portrait had closed behind him.
"Patience, lad," James admonished. "Patience."
Fifteen minutes later, he was sat in the Heads' common room next to his mother, his father having disappeared into his bedroom. It was the first time he'd been properly alone with her and he was suddenly at a loss for what to say.
"So, you've had your first Arithmancy lesson? What did you think?" she asked. Based on her attempt at small talk, Harry wasn't the only one feeling the awkwardness of the situation.
"Not bad," he answered. "I was worried I'd be behind…or it would be too confusing for me…but Hermione helped catch me up the last few days. She did a really good job explaining everything. I would have been lost without her."
"Are you sure you don't fancy Hermione?" James chimed in as he took a seat in a nearby chair, a worn piece of parchment in his hands.
"James," Lily chided in a tone slightly more serious than what he'd witnessed before, and for the first time that he could recall, James seemed slightly repentant for one of his jokes. He wasn't sure what was going on because James' teasing hadn't been that bad. Lily had been a bit more closed off the other day but Harry hadn't really thought much of it at the time, and the walk to their quarters had been relatively quiet. He'd assumed that they were trying to be secretive, but it appeared that something might have happened between the two.
"First of all, I'm sorry we haven't been around much the last few days," James began, "but thanks to the Weasley twins our search for Peter has been much easier going than originally planned."
"Fred and George?" As brilliant as the twins were, Harry was a bit bothered that they had enlisted those two for help instead of him and his friends.
James nodded. "They'd gotten their hands on something my friends and I had created when we were at Hogwarts, something amazingly brilliant," he complimented himself as he handed over the parchment.
"The Marauder's Map?" Harry blurted as he examined the parchment. As he scanned the document, Harry spotted his name, right next to James Potter and Lily Evans. And there were loads of other names scattered around in various sections. He spotted Ron and Hermione's names in the Gryffindor common room and, to his amusement, Hermione also sitting in the library.
"This is a map of Hogwarts!"
James nodded. "My friends and I created it near the end of fifth year. It was our next project after we'd mastered our Animagus transformations. We had so many ideas in mind for this beauty in seventh year." Based on his expression the ideas that James had in mind didn't jibe with his position as Head Boy.
"Anyway, we've had a breakthrough," Lily interrupted, pointing to an area in the top left corner of the parchment. Based on the shape and its location it looked to be Hagrid's hut. He spotted Hagrid's name as well as another.
"Peter Pettigrew!" he blurted, jumping to his feet.
"Hang on, Harry," Lily counseled, tugging on his arm for him to retake his seat beside her.
"Hang on? For what? He's right there!"
"Just listen," James continued. "No-one wants to get Peter more than me, but we have to be careful. He's had years of experience sneaking around and giving people the slip…and he knows every nook and cranny of the Hogwarts grounds." James paused to look at Lily. "I was all set to track him down when we finally spotted him but Lily talked me out of it, and she was right. We've been tracking him since Sunday morning and he's been moving around the castle grounds. We think he's been looking for the best place to hide."
"Why is he still here? Why hasn't he run?"
"He's worried about Sirius, not us. He has no clue we're onto him and as long as he stays at Hogwarts, he's got the Dementors and Hogwarts' security enchantments protecting him."
"Over the last day or so he seems to have settled in at Hagrid's hut," Lily offered. "It makes sense, he'd have access to food and shelter, and he could make a quick getaway into the Forbidden Forest if he was spotted."
"What do you need me to do?" Harry asked, drawing curious looks from his parents.
"We don't need you to do anything, Harry," James answered. "I promised we'd catch you up, and that's what we're doing; catching you up."
He was all set to protest but James beat him to the punch.
"You've hogged all the adventuring the last two years; let mummy and daddy have a bit of fun, yeah?"
"This isn't a joke, James," Lily admonished. "James and I have Defence tomorrow. We're going to talk to Remus after class and explain what we've learned about Sirius and what is going on. We both think it's time we involved a staff member, and Remus knows Peter's tricks as well as James. If all goes as planned we'll have captured Peter by the end of the weekend. His dumb joke aside, James is right. Let us handle this one."
"There is one thing," James said. "You wouldn't happen to have my old invisibility cloak, would you?"
After spending a few additional minutes in casual conversation with his parents, it was clear something had happened between them. While Lily had been exceedingly gracious and kind toward him, James received the bare minimum of consideration. His dad seemed to be taking it in stride.
"Did something happen between you and Lily?" he asked as they made the trek back to Gryffindor.
James raised an eyebrow. "Picked up on that, did you? We hit a bit of a wobble on Saturday during our visit to London. I'd hoped she would have gotten over it by now but Lily is a stubborn one. Part of the reason I like her so much, I suppose."
"A bit of a wobble?"
"Let's just say she wasn't aware that we'd have an unexpected visitor during our outing."
"Are you serious?" he asked. Harry knew next to nothing about girls but even he wouldn't have been that thick.
"I couldn't take the chance, you see? Couldn't risk her ruining my visit. How was I to know she'd be so accommodating to our guest?"
"You could have told her ahead of time," Harry replied.
"Yeah, in retrospect that seems like it would have been the better choice. Do you want to know the worst part?"
Harry remained silent, taken aback that his father was speaking so openly about his romantic troubles.
"I'm used to Lily being annoyed or angry with me. I've got over five years of practice at her scowling and stomping, but this is much worse."
"How?"
"She's so polite and quiet and it's doing my head in. If I mess up again before our Hogsmeade date I'm finished. And it's bound to happen because when it comes to Lily I always seem to mess up."
Harry remained silent, once again not having a clue about how to process what was happening. It was a close call between which topic had broken his brain more: the inner workings and machinations of time travel or his parents' romantic tribulations. He'd never been so happy to see the Fat Lady come into view.
"I'll be right back," he mumbled as he disappeared through the portrait hole to fetch his cloak. When he returned back to the hallway his father still seemed to be pondering his predicament and unfortunately, Harry had not gained any further words of wisdom.
"Thanks, Harry," James said as he handed over the cloak. "I'll give this back as soon as Lily and I sort out our little problem."
"Good luck with Lily," he replied unthinkingly, feeling like an absolute idiot.
"Thanks, mate. I'm sure it will work out. I mean, she married me after all. If I somehow manage not to piss her off again, maybe you and Hermione can join us in Hogsmeade; you know…a double date."
Harry felt his face warm. His dad was exceedingly good at teasing him when he least expected it.
"My uncle refused to sign my Hogsmeade permission form."
His father chuckled. "Blowing up his sister might not have been the best strategy. But between the cloak and the map I'm sure we can make it happen."
Harry was suddenly struck with an idea. "Technically, all I need is a guardian or a parent's signature-"
James burst out laughing as he realized what Harry was asking. "I'll sign it on one condition: I want to be there to see McGonagall's face when you hand in your form."