Chapter Four; Here and Now

Harry's mind had been seized by a complete sense of unreality. This didn't seem real. Not at all. Surely it was nothing more than a dream; he would wake up in a minute.

Any moment now.

The seconds lengthened, and still the figures before him remained solid … real …

Alive.

Some part of Harry's brain was suggesting that what he'd heard was just a fluke - that he'd misheard.

Then the boy right in front of him turned. It was like looking in a mirror. Tall and thin with a mop of jet-black hair that stuck up in all directions and round glasses on a thin face. But the eyes, they were a pale blue, not Harry's own bright green.

There was no mistaking him.

'Dad?'

That one word somehow made it out of Harry's dry mouth. It was barely audible but James Potter glanced back over his shoulder. For a moment his eyes looked straight into Harry's own. But then he turned away, the whisper dismissed as a breath of wind, now turning his attention back to his friends.

They were moving away from him. Mechanically, Harry moved forward, blindly following. His brain was slowly starting to take it in - painfully.

James Potter strode purposely across the pitch, his scarlet Quidditch robes fanning out behind him, idly tossing a Quaffle up in the air with one hand, his broomstick held in the other.

The other scarlet clad students, his team mates, Harry didn't recognise. But the three other students that had come onto the pitch to walk with them were just as familiar as his father was.

A very pretty girl with dark, curly red hair and emerald green eyes slipped through the others to take James' arm. She gave him a lovely smile, her face shining with admiration.

A tall black haired boy moved to James' other side. His dark eyes were sparkling with mischief and fun. A cheeky grin shone on his handsome face and his laugh rang out merrily as he made a joke about his best friend, making everyone smile.

And tagging along behind them was a short, plump boy with thin, colourless hair, watery eyes and a pointed nose. His sharp eyes darted from one person to the next as they spoke, hanging on to every word.

The four of them emerged from the Quidditch stadium, pulling away from the others who were heading off to the changing rooms. James, with Lily on his arm, turned their steps towards the lake. Sirius, chiding Peter's slowness, urged him to hurry up as he and the other two broke into a run, racing each other for the lake's edge.

Feeling as though a dam in his chest was about to burst, Harry bolted across the lawn, skirting around the border of the Forbidden Forest, running for the shelter of a secluded cove by the water's edge. Mind buzzing, he forced his way through the thick tangle of bushes and ducked down behind a mass of water reeds growing in the shallows. No more than fifty feet away, the Marauders had settled themselves on a grassy slope overlooking the choppy grey waters, watching the distant form of the giant squid ploughing through the waves at a tremendous speed.

From this distance Harry couldn't make out a single word of what they were saying. So if he couldn't hear them, they would not be able to hear him.

Despite the shock, Harry's numb brain had latched onto a single instruction that Professor Dumbledore had given him; Contact the Order.

Kneeling down on the edge of the bank, Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak down off of his head. His reflection stared up at him, looking deathly pale. Forcing himself to concentrate Harry touched the tip of his wand to the water's surface, sending glowing ripples through the reeds. Muttering the incantation under his breath, a jet of pure white light shot out of his wand and down through the depths, vanishing from sight. The rippling continued to emanate from the centre. Harry waited anxiously.

Then a familiar face appeared in the water among the ripples, wearing an expression of immense relief.

'Harry, there you are! Everyone's been getting really worried. We were starting to think that something had happened.'

'Hi, Katie.' Harry forced a shaky smile.

Katie's smile faded. She peered closely at him, unusually concerned.

'Blimey, Harry, what's wrong? If you were a Muggle I'd say you look like you've seen a ghost.'

'Not quite. Can I speak to Dumbledore?'

Katie raised her eyebrows.

'Sure,' she said, still looking troubled. 'Just hold on for a second.'

Katie's face vanished and was soon replaced with that of the Hogwarts Headmaster.

'Harry, are you all right?' he asked gravely.

Glancing up through the reeds at his mother and father, Harry wasn't sure if he could give an answer to that.

'Harry, are you all right?' Dumbledore asked again. 'Where are you?'

Harry looked down into Dumbledore's questioning face.

'Hogwarts,' he said slowly. 'I'm at Hogwarts.'

Dumbledore's brow furrowed, his ice blue eyes peering intently into Harry's own. It seemed that he was trying to read his mind, or at least his expression and tone of voice.

'What have you seen?' he asked gently, as though sensing something was deeply wrong.

Silence. Harry's mouth opened but no sound came out.

'Harry?'

Averting his eyes, Harry spoke to his lap.

'My - my parents.'

Neither of them spoke. When Harry finally looked back up, Dumbledore's eyes were wide and over-bright, his lined face etched with grave concern and shock.

'How old are they?' he asked urgently.

'Um, fifteen, sixteen maybe, I'm not sure.' said Harry vaguely, wondering why that would make any difference.

'Harry,' Dumbledore said softly. 'I understand this must have been an awful shock but you must not forget why you are there. You have a job, a purpose, to ensure that that timeline remains intact. Do you remember what I told you? You must protect the target -'

The target, Harry thought numbly, his eyes locking back onto the distant figures on the bank. Protect the target.

'And nothing more. Do you understand?'

'Yes, sir,' said Harry. But he wouldn't meet Dumbledore's eyes. Dumbledore frowned.

'Harry -'

But Harry pulled sharply away from the lake, standing up to see over the reeds. They were leaving, heading back up to the castle.

'I've got to go.' He said shortly. Aiming his wand at the water, he cut off the link. Dumbledore's stunned face faded away into nothing, the water returning to normal.

Pulling the Cloak back up over his head, Harry set off, running to catch up with his father.

Protect the target … protect the target …

*

'Ah, dear, tha' musta hurt quite a bit.' Hagrid sighed, holding the injured raven up to his eye level, squinting at the crumpled mass of black feathers of what used to be a fully functional wing. The bird squabbled and jabbed at Hagrid's fingers with its long, sharp beak.

Placing the raven gently back onto the scrubbed wooden table, Hagrid looked around his cabin for a birdcage.

'Is it possible to fix the wing?' asked Remus anxiously, holding back Holly, Hagrid's three year old black female boarhound. Holly was watching the raven curiously, trying to get close enough to have a good sniff. 'I mean, it will be able to fly again, won't it?'

'Should think so, yeah. It's jus' tryin' ter fix the break without him movin' around too much, tha's the problem. Birds don't like sittin' still fer long.'

True to form, the raven was still putting up a good fight, struggling in Hagrid's grasp.

Fumbling under the table, Hagrid pulled out a small birdcage and gently placed the bird inside. The raven went berserk, hurling itself around the cage in a panic, cawing loudly and beating its one good wing against the bars, sending loose feathers flying all over the place.

'Can't we put a Sleep Spell on it or something?' asked Remus. 'It'll hurt itself even more if it keeps that up.'

'Nah, don't like ter use magic on animals an' birds if I can help it. Does more 'arm than good most o' tha time. Best yah can do, Remus, is ter keep it in the dark in a quiet place. When it's calmed down we can try an' help it.'

All of a sudden, the bird stopped fighting. It was now perched as still as a statue, its dark eyes fixed on Remus.

Remus stared at the raven. It stared back. It didn't blink or turn away.

Hagrid found a thick blue towel in his cupboard and draped it over the cage, tucking the edges underneath. The raven remained still and silent as the material fell over it.

'I'll leave it fer an hour or so, let it get used ter its new home, then try somethin' with that wing.'

'Okay, thanks Hagrid. I'd better get back to the castle now.'

'All right, see yah later, Remus.'

As Remus left the cabin, he glanced back at the covered cage. For some strange reason, it felt as though the bird was still staring at him.

*

Within the darkened cage, Seth's cool gaze followed the boy's shadow as it moved away.

The pain in his wing was excruciating, but his hearing was in no way impaired.

Remus. That's what the other person had called him. And outside, he suddenly recalled someone referring to the boy as 'Moony'. Remus Lupin; one of the names from his files.

Seth mentally went over the information. Remus Lupin; a member of Gryffindor house; top of the class in Defence against the Dark Arts; acted as a reserve Keeper for his house Quidditch team; went by the nickname of Moony as a member of the quartet of mischief makers known as the Marauders.

Which meant that he often met with the target.

Seth's enthusiasm for the hunt returned full measure. He was on the correct timeline, he was certain of that. Begrudgingly, he admitted that those Death Eaters weren't complete incompetents after all.

Then something else occurred to him.

Remus Lupin was a victim of childhood lycanthropy. Now that was interesting.

Settling himself down in an effort to conserve his energy, the beginnings of a plan started to formulate in Seth's mind.

*

Back at the Hall of Light, Remus Lupin was nervously watching his friend pace the room. Sirius hadn't said a word since Dumbledore had informed them of the timeline in which Harry had arrived. Both of them had been deeply shaken to think that Harry had just seen his mother and father. What on earth was going through that poor boy's mind right now?

The rest of the Order had been informed. The news didn't seem quite as startling to them but they were quick to reach a conclusion as to the assassins motive. He was after James or Lily Potter. Possibly both.

Sirius and Remus had quickly excused themselves from the Hall and shut themselves away in an empty room as far away from the others as possible. That had been half an hour ago. Remus sat with his head in his hands, staring at nothing. Sirius kept pacing the room and shaking his head.

'I don't believe this,' he muttered. 'He could have gone back to any moment in time. He might have seen the founders laying the first stones of Hogwarts castle a thousand years ago … gone back to when Ollivander's started business … seen the battle of Hastings in 1066 … the start of the second world war … he didn't even have to go back that far, he could have gone back to a week last Thursday for crying out loud!'

Sirius' pacing had sped up.

'He could have ended up on any moment in history, he could have gone anywhere - and he ends up in the 'Marauder era' ?' he cried in disbelief, throwing up his hands. Sirius let out a ragged breath, feeling extremely frustrated and powerless to do anything about it. 'I shouldn't have let him go.'

'You weren't to know,' said Remus quietly. 'None of us even considered the possibility.'

'But why didn't we?' Sirius demanded angrily. 'Isn't it kind of obvious? Didn't I say earlier that the target must be important to Voldemort in some way or another? Someone that he didn't want screwing up his plans? Did it not occur to anyone that Harry brought about the Dark Lord's downfall fourteen years ago? Voldemort had been gaining power steadily until then. If Harry hadn't been around to stop him, who knows what would have happened?'

Sirius slumped into a chair across from Remus, closed his eyes and let out a resigned sigh.

'He's going to kill James and Lily before Harry can be born.'

'It would appear so,' said Remus. 'And by targeting them when they're not even fully trained in magic is quite clever. They don't know nearly enough to defend themselves.'

'Even if they did, we're talking about a highly trained assassin here.'

Remus simply nodded.

Sirius fixed him with an incredulous stare.

'How can you be taking this so calmly?'

Remus raised an eyebrow.

'Would it help matters if I were hysterical?'

Sirius thought about that for a moment, then rested his chin in his hand. 'Probably not, but I know that look. What are you thinking, Moony?'

Remus hesitated, then said carefully, 'I think that the assassin may not be the only problem.'

'Why? Isn't one enough?'

Leaning back in his chair, Remus wondered how best to phrase his suspicions for he knew that Sirius would not like them one little bit.

'Padfoot, can I ask you something? A personal question?'

Sirius shrugged.

'Yeah, sure, go ahead.'

'If you could go back and change any moment in history, what would it be?'

Sirius' face fell. An odd guarded expression fell over his features.

'What kind of question is that?'

'An important one. Will you answer it?'

For a moment, Sirius didn't say anything. His eyes wandered, not focusing on anything in particular. Finally, he said, 'I guess it would have to be when James asked me to be the Secret Keeper. I would have accepted the role instead of trying to be clever and call the Dark Lord's bluff by switching to Peter at the last minute.'

'What do you think would have happened if you had done that?'

'Well, Prongs and Lily would probably still be alive right now,' he said sadly. 'They would have raised Harry instead of him being left with those Muggle excuses for relatives …'

He stopped. Slowly, he looked up at Remus, meeting his cool blue-grey eyes. Eyes that held the notion of an awful suspicion.

'Oh, no, Moony, you don't think …'

'I think it's a possibility we need to be aware of.'

Sirius looked thoroughly bewildered.

'But - but Harry wouldn't … he knows the risks involved in altering history!' He forced a laugh. 'Besides, what is there that he could change on that timeline that could possibly have any effect on that?' Sirius leaned back and folded his arms. Of course Harry wouldn't think of such a thing. Why would he? What could he do?

'Sirius, with the exception of Voldemort, who has been held responsible for his parents deaths?'

Sirius suddenly felt his bubble of rationalisations burst. He sat in stunned, horrified silence for several long minutes.

'No.' he said quietly. 'No, I don't believe that. Harry is not that way inclined, I'm sure of it. I know I would do anything to bring James and Lily back … but - but to kill …' he shook his head firmly. 'No, Harry wouldn't do something like that.'

Remus felt terrible - truly sick to his stomach at the thought. He really did not want to have brought this up, but he feared it was a very real possibility.

The future of Harry's parents now lay in their son's hands.

Given this chance … what reason did he have not to take it?

*

To Be Continued

*

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