James, his girlfriend Lily and his brother-best friends Sirius and Remus were all sitting in the great hall for breakfast.
"Where's Peter anyway?" Sirius asked through a huge bite of sausage.
Remus grimaced but answered anyway, "Visiting his mother, apparently, she got sick again."
"Oof," was Sirius' only reply.
Remus looked at him in confusion, "I'm sorry what?", but before his question could be answered there were two loud thuds, followed by twin groans.
Remus turned around to see that in the aisle between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables, a rather tall looking boy with a mess of black hair, and a significantly shorter girl with a bush of brown hair were laying on the ground, face down.
The boy got up first and Remus heard nearly the whole hall gasp when his face was revealed, 'Jesus he looks like James,' Remus thought. Then the boy bent slightly and held out a hand for the girl that had arrived with him. She took it and gracefully pulled herself up.
"You have any long-lost twins Prongs?" Sirius whispered to James, though in the silence of the hall everyone could hear.
"Pretty sure I don't," James replied.
The boy and girl still stood in the aisle, turned at the sound of the voices and stared straight at them.
"Of course," The boy suddenly said, sounding exasperated, "Of-fucking-course."
The girl looked at him, "Language Harry," she admonished.
The boy blinked, "Really Hermione? Really? In this situation?"
"Yeah okay sorry, just a habit," Hermione responded.
Harry and Hermione looked around again, this time focusing on the head table.
Everyone followed them with their heads as the two walked up to the head table, straight forward and to Dumbledore's seat.
Dumbledore sat still, eyes twinkling and a small smile playing on his lips.
"Can we talk in your office?" Harry asked.
"Please," Hermione added hastily.
"Of course," Dumbledore rose from his seat, gestured for McGonagall to follow and led the teenagers out of the great hall.
Once they left, the hall immediately erupted in noise.
"Bloody hell!" Sirius exclaimed, "He looks just like you Prongs!"
"I know Padfoot, who do you think they are?" James asked.
"I don't know, new students maybe?" Remus answered with a shrug.
"A few days after term started?" Lily asked sceptically.
"It could happen," Remus said.
Dumbledore had just led McGonagall, Harry and Hermione into his office, and they had all taken seats.
"So," he began, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
Harry leant back in his chair easily, resting his arms on the armrest, "Why don't you just take a look, it'll be so much easier than explaining."
Dumbledore's eyes widened slightly but he nodded and made eye contact with Harry, breaching his mind.
Nearly five minutes later, Harry and Dumbledore came out of the sort of trance they had slipped into.
Dumbledore smiled at him and said, "Well then Mr Potter, Miss. Granger, it looks as if you will be here for a while, we will search for a way to help return you home and in the mean time you can live in the Gryffindor tower and attend fifth year classes.
"Thank you, sir, and if you feel it necessary you can inform Professor McGonagall of who we are," Harry said calmly.
"Yes, I think I will, also Mr Potter, perhaps we should change your last name?" Dumbledore responded.
"I don't think so sir, a certain group of students have a way of finding out things such as that and it would raise more suspicion if I was found out for lying," Harry said.
"Of course, we shall keep it the same then," Dumbledore nodded, "We shall go back to the great hall and introduce you as new transfer students from…Ilvermorny? We can say you recently moved back to Britain after you left for America in your first year to account for your accents."
"That sounds great," Hermione said as they all rose from their seats to leave.
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"Hello students, let me introduce two new fifth year students, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter, they will be joining Gryffindor as said by the sorting hat," Dumbledore spoke.
Harry and Hermione made their way over to the Gryffindor table, scanning for seats. They saw two seats next to each over open up as James and Remus scooted away from each other to make room for them.
They both made their way over, hand in hand and sat down.
"So, you're new then?" Sirius asked.
Harry smiled cheekily, "Obviously." Hermione rolled her eyes.
The marauders smiled but continued with the questions, "How is your last name Potter? That's my name," James questioned.
"Potter is quite a common name in the muggle world, his father was a muggleborn and his mother was a pureblood," Hermione quickly answered. Harry nodded and winked at Hermione so the others couldn't see.
"Was?" Remus seemed to be the only one who picked up on the past tense.
"Yeah, they were killed when I was one, I was raised by my Godfather," Harry answered solemnly.
"I'm sorry," Lily said.
Harry shook his head, his eyes softening slightly while looking at his future mother, "It's fine really."
After some silence, Sirius asked, "So, are you two together?"
Harry and Hermione smiled, "Yes," they answered at the same time.
"How long?" Lily asked.
Harry's eyes widened slightly and he looked panicked as he tried to figure it out, causing a chuckle to come from James, Remus and Sirius.
"Two years," Hermione said quickly with an eye roll and light slap on Harry's shoulder, the tall boy let out a nervous laugh and kissed her on the cheek as an apology.
"I've been going out with James for just under a year," Lily offered.
Harry and Hermione smiled at them.
"So, what classes do you have?" Remus asked.
"I take Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes on top of core subjects and Hermione does the same as well as Arithmancy," Harry answered.
"Oh, cool you have the same as me and Sirius and Hermione has the same as Lily and Remus," James said.
Just then, McGonagall walked up to Harry and Hermione, two pieces of paper clutched in her hand.
"Your timetables," She said when she approached.
Harry and Hermione each took their timetables and spoke at the same time, "Thank you, Professor."
McGonagall nodded her head in acknowledgement and left.
"What do you have first?" James asked.
"Transfiguration with Ravenclaw," Harry answered. "Same," Hermione added.
"Nice, that's what we have," James said excitedly.
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The group left the great hall for transfiguration, James and Lily holding hands as well as Harry and Hermione.
James, Lily and Remus were walking ahead as Harry, Hermione and Sirius lagged a little behind.
"So," Harry began, turning his head and pointing it quite a bit down to talk to Sirius, it seemed he hadn't quite hit his growth spurt yet, standing at 5'7 to his usual 6'0, "Know where all the good broom closets are?" He asked innocently. He was raised by Sirius after all, his cheeky humour wasn't going to go just because they were in the past.
"Harry!" Hermione said, scandalised, causing James, Lily and Remus to all stop and turn around. Sirius started laughing as soon as Harry had asked the question and they all looked at him questioningly.
"What?" James asked, directing the question to Sirius.
Sirius had calmed somewhat and started to explain, "Harry wants pointers on the best broom closets, well, "he looked up at Harry and threw his arm over his shoulders, struggling slightly due to his height, "You've come to the right person, these three," he pointed to James, Lily and Remus, "wouldn't have a clue of the best ones."
James looked affronted and was about to respond before Lily, flushed slightly from embarrassment said, "We're going to be late for transfiguration, let's go." She grabbed James' hand and started walking faster than was strictly necessary. Remus smiled and waited for the remaining three to catch up.
Hermione leaned up to whisper in Harry's ear as they walked, "You know full well where all the broom closets are."
Harry gave his signature grin and leaned down to whisper back, "I know, but we have to keep up the appearance of the new students."
Hermione huffed and continued walking, still holding Harry's hand. Harry smiled as she dragged him along.
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The four arrived at the transfiguration classroom and saw that James and Lily were already sitting in the middle row, four seats to the side of James.
They made their way over and Sirius told Harry and Hermione to go in first. So, Harry sat next to James, with Hermione on his other side, then Sirius and Remus.
McGonagall walked into the room towards her desk and stood in front of it.
"Today you will be transfiguring a piece of parchment into a puppy. I don't expect anyone to be getting it this first lesson as transfiguring something into a living being is quite difficult." She waved her wand and a piece of parchment appeared in front of each student, "Begin."
The class burst out talking while attempting the task.
James and Sirius attempted it, making James parchment grow a tail and dog ears, while Sirius' grew four canine legs and paws.
"Yes!" they celebrated at the same time. McGonagall came over and looked at their partly transfigured parchment. "Congratulations Mr Black, Mr Potter, the fact that you even partly transfigured it is very impressive, 10 house points each," with that she turned and walked away to inspect other's work.
"Good job, "Harry turned to his father and said. James smiled and turned to face Harry, "Thanks, why don't you have a go?" James responded.
Harry shrugged and lifted his wand, pointing it at the parchment and suddenly there was a tan coloured puppy that let out a high pitched bark. James, Sirius, Remus and Lily all looked at it, mouths dropped open, while Hermione just gave a small smile, already knowing Harry was quite good at transfiguration, and everything else.
McGonagall turned at the sound of the bark and walked swiftly over to the group. "Well, Mr Potter, very impressive indeed," she sounded genuine, "25 house points." She turned and walked away once again.
The group all turned to Harry and all said at the same time, "How'd you do that?"
Harry shrugged, "I don't know, I just did it."
They stared at him incredulously, obviously waiting for him to say more. Harry shrugged once more, "I guess I just wanted it to happen, so it did."
Hermione snorted, drawing the group's attention to her. "Honestly Harry, you're too modest. He's very powerful, we had to take a power test in first year at Ilvermorny, Harry's came back as a perfect 10, I got a 7.5." Hermione said knowingly.
"A 10?!" James shouted, Harry blushed lightly, "I got an 8, highest in the year, and even Dumbledore's only a 9.5!"
"You're more powerful than Dumbledore?!" Remus questioned.
Their shock seemed to have gathered the attention of the entire class, as every head turned to the group. Harry was confident, something being raised by his godfather had implanted in him, but when people talked about his power or fame, it was always something to make him blush. And that was why Harry's cheeks almost resembled a Weasley red when he saw that everyone was staring.
"I guess," he said quietly and shrugged.
"Woah," Sirius said smartly while at the same time James said, "We are so talking more about this later."
Harry's blush deepened and he sunk a little into his seat. The class turned back to their conversations and task, while James and Sirius tried with renewed efforts to turn their parchment into a puppy.
The class continued until McGonagall dismissed them. In the end, Harry was the only one to fully transfigure his parchment with the rest of the group coming close.
The group of six teens left for their next lesson, potions.