Merlin's Portal and the Tales of Time
Author's Note: Wow! You like this story, huh? It was an experiment, I didn't know if I would continue, but I guess I will, thanks for all the nice things you said!
Disclaimer: If I was J.K. would I be writing fanfiction? Heck no! I'd be wallowing in my piles of money and writing the NEXT HP book for all us loyal HPFREAKS!
Chapter Three
"How can you be so happy...I mean, knowing what happens to you, and that it can't be changed?" Ron asked James, who was eagerly shoving his food into his mouth. James sat up and swallowed, looking at Ron with amusement.
"Do you think I really believe time can't be changed? Come on. My entire life, I've learned you can get around any rule, no matter how unbreakable it seems. This is just another challenge, and one I fully intend to beat."
Ron sighed. "I just hope you're right."
James snorted. Ron kept glancing at him...he actually looked almost identical to Harry, what with the adjustments made on him. His eyes now looked green, thanks to a clever pair of glasses which changed their shape and color, and a mirror spell had given him a scar on his forehead identical to one on a photo of Harry they had used to make the spell complete.
Hermione walked over and sat down next to them. Ron was glad that she hadn't heard their conversation...she always did tend to get a tad nervous whenever he and Harry talked about rule-breaking...he guessed reasonably that having the infamous Prongs running around school wasn't going to help her already nervous constitution.
"Hey, guys." She said. "Hey, Harry." She said, winking at James.
"That is bound to get confusing." James muttered, pushing away his plate. "What class do we have first today?"
Ron glanced down at his schedule. "Uhm...Divination, it looks like. We're starting advanced flame-scrying today."
"There might be a problem with that." James muttered. "I've never taken Divination...what if I don't know what to do?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You make it up, that is all that Harry and Ron ever do."
James grinned. "Oh, really? Does she believe it?"
"Yeah, if you predict your death enough." Ron sighed. "It has been her yearly prediction to see Harry's death in the near future."
"And how many times has he come close to dying?" James grinned.
"Quite a few times, actually." Ron shrugged. "It gets annoying, after awhile."
They left Hermione and began making their way up to the Divination room. The ladder was already falling from the ceiling, and it looked like the rest of the class had already headed up. "Let's go." Ron said, pointing up.
"Weird." James shimmied up the rope and into the room. He pulled himself up and glanced around, grinning at Lavender and Parvati. "Hello, ladies." He winked. With an astonished look, the two girls giggled.
"Come on, Romeo." Ron sighed, steering James to a table in the back of the room. They were sitting just as Professor Trelawney entered from the shadows.
"Hello, class." She said in a 'mystical' tone. "We are here, in your final year, to fine tune the makings of your inner eye. In this way, we hope to get you in touch with that which you should know, and all that will be."
"And that means..." James started, laughing when Ron poked him in the ribs.
"Harry...I see you still do not take the portents of your inner eye seriously?" she said, frowning. "That would change, if only you saw what I see, Harry. A dark cloud looms over your head, darker than ever before..."
"Wow, you do like to tell---me---I'm going to die, don't you?" James snorted.
The rest of her lecture continued much of the same vein. Finally, the candles were lit and sitting before them. Ron was glad.
Only three teachers in the school knew of the predicament that James and Harry were in. Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore, of course. None of the other teachers had been told, though; Dumbledore supposed having the form of the famous James Potter, albeit the younger form, would cause undue trauma amongst everybody.
"So..." James muttered after staring into the flame after a minute. "What exactly are we looking for?"
"Beats me." Ron shrugged. "All I see is a flame...well, that and little multi-colored spots."
"I see dead people." Neville hissed from a table nearby. Everybody in hearing distance broke into stifled laughter.
"Uhm...and that was about...?"
"Oh, nothing really. Just this muggle movie we all got hold of last year." Ron chuckled. "Now, back to this..." he stared for a few minutes.
James tried to focus, he really did, but he couldn't help the fact that thoughts of 'this is dumb' and 'Lily really looked hot the other day...' kept popping into his head. After another long moment of trying he sat back, skulking.
"Dear, I would be more cautious if I were you." Trelawney said mysteriously as she wandered over to James and Ron.
"And...why exactly?" James said.
"Concentrate, Harry...open your inner eye, let it see the wonders of the future..."
James grinned. "Sorry, my inner eye was up reading late last night and it's a little tired. You wouldn't happen to have a monocle or something for it, would you?"
Trelawney frowned as the entire class broke out laughing. "This does not bode well. I have seen that you will not be with us much longer...in fact, it is almost as if you were gone from us completely..."
"Wonder why that is." He snorted under his breath to Ron, while the two girls who sat up front near Trelawney got astonished looks on their faces and looked pityingly at him.
"Okay...one more go?" Ron said after a moment, when Trelawney had already left. James nodded and started staring one more time into the candle.
He didn't know whether it was the combination of the thick, sickly smelling incense or the quiet staring into the flame, combined with the fact that he had hardly slept the night before, but after a moment James started drifting away.
'I don't know, are you sure about this?' a strangely familiar voice asked.
'Listen, now that Prongs is gone, you, as his son, are going to take his place.' Sirius grinned. 'So buck up, Harry, you're having an adventure!'
'I've had too many lately...' James started when a face that looked almost identical to his came into view. He was standing in a dark hall with the rest---Peter, Sirius, and Remus, and they were going off in the direction of the kitchens...
"What is it?" James jumped and fell out of his seat when a voice much louder than the muffled voices he had just heard sounded right next to his ear. He glanced up, rubbing his head where it had banged on the table. "You...you're scar didn't hurt again, did it?" The boy known as Neville Longbottom was standing over James, a worried look on his face.
"What? No...no..." He slowly got to his feet. Trelawney was rushing over.
"Dear, did you see? Has the future come to you?"
"No...not exactly." He said. Trelawney got an almost hurt look on her face. James turned to whisper to Ron..."But the past did."
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"I'm just glad Harry came when he did." Lily said, leaning back against the couch in the Gryffindor common room. "I mean, if he hadn't our lives would have gone on like they did in his past. Now that we know the future, we can prevent that."
"Yeah...I know what you mean. I am NOT going to let them take me to Azkaban for twelve years." Sirius shuddered. "I mean, I may be a bit of a prankster..."
"A liar..." Peter added.
"A cheater..." Remus said, grinning.
"An all-around..."
"Okay...thanks for helping." Sirius huffed. "As I was saying, I may not be the best person in the world, but I'm not a murderer. Who framed me, anyway?" Sirius said, looking at Harry, who was sitting in a chair before the fire, lost in thought.
"What?" he glanced up, seeing them all looking expectantly at him. "Oh, I don't really know who it was. I haven't learned much about you..." he lied. Remus glanced up at him but didn't say anything...Harry had the strong suspicion that Remus knew he was lying.
But what was he to do? He couldn't depress them all by telling them that the past couldn't be changed. This was his only chance to get to know them as they had been, before Voldemort changed all their lives. This was the only chance he would ever get to know his mum at all, even if she was more like a fellow student than a parent.
"Oh...okay." Sirius turned back, grinning.
"So, tell me..." Remus said after a moment, peering over the book in his hand. "What am I doing in this future of yours?"
"Actually," Harry grinned, "You were my professor for a year."
"A professor?" Sirius scoffed. "How dare you, Remus? Go and betray us like that...Harry, did Remus ever deduct points from you? Did he ever berate you for breaking a rule? Because for that offense, you must die..."
"Sirius, you are the physiological equivalent of a troll's gluteus maximus." Remus said, grinning.
"What?" Sirius said, mouth hanging open.
"He called you a troll's arse." Lily said, shrieking when Sirius reached over to grab her foot and pull her down onto the floor.
Harry watched all this, grinning. After a moment, when things had settled down, Peter turned to Harry. This was what Harry had been dreading...he was prepared.
"So...what am I doing?" he said, grinning. Harry was flustered.
"Oh...well, I don't really know much about you. After my dad and...Lily died, I guess you didn't keep in touch. I think I heard you were...working in the ministry."
"The ministry, Pettigrew?" Sirius said, making a face. "Come on, chap, you can do better than that. Peter, you're going to be an auror with me, you hear? Adventure, excitement...and hot witches in skimpy robes!" Sirius ducked as Lily sent a blow in his general direction.
"I'll pass on the adventure and excitement." Peter said, making a face. "How about just letting me lead a nice, peaceful..."
"Nope." Sirius said, shaking his head. "You can't do that...not now that you've taken the oath of the Marauders."
Harry's head shot up...the marauders? Did that mean...
"What oath?" Harry said cautiously. "Do you mean...the one on the Marauder's Map?" he said. All of the group turned to look at him.
"Yes..." Sirius said. "Did you get the map from your dad?"
Harry shook his head. "No...I got it from my friend's brothers. They found it in Filch's cabinet of highly dangerous..."
"Highly dangerous?" Sirius said, pretending to blush. "Aww...that makes me feel special. After all, that map was our very own creation..."
"Yeah," Lily snorted, "Even though it required my help to make. Honestly, you boys would be dead by now if I hadn't helped you out on most of your little 'adventures.' "
"Yes, but if you've seen the map..." Sirius said, slowly turning to Harry, "then you need to take the oath."
They were all looking at him now...Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Uhm...what are you going to do?" he said nervously.
"Oh, nothing..." Sirius said. "Just...GRAB HIM!" On Sirius' command Remus and Peter rushed forward to grab Harry's arms and legs. Sirius and Lily followed, Lily laughing loudly.
"Don't worry!" she shouted. "They've done this to me before, it's all part of their weird little initiation for some odd reason."
Harry watched the ceiling fly past as they ran with him out the common room and down the hall. A group of Hufflepuffs burst out laughing when he passed, and still they carried him, further and further until they burst through the doors of the great hall, leading him on and on until Harry was certain where they were taking him.
"The Lake!" Harry felt his stomach do a somersault as he was tossed, arms flailing, into the cold, icy water.
"That was a good one, Peter." Remus commented. "We must have gotten him about thirty feet."
"Yeah...been working on my arm, I have." Peter grinned. Harry waded to the surface, remembering in the back of his mind the second challenge of the Triwizard tournament in his fourth year.
The group turned to look at him, Lily stifling giggles. "Say it!" Sirius cried. "Say it!"
Before long the group started chanting it, over and over. "Say it! Say it! Say it! Say it!"
"Say what?" Harry said, spitting water out of his mouth.
"Say the oath!" Remus cried.
Oath? Yes, that was right...the Marauder's Map...
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good!" Harry said, bobbing under the water for a moment.
"What was that?" Sirius said, cupping a hand behind his ear. "I couldn't hear you."
"I SOLEMNLY SWEAR I AM UP TO NO GOOD!" Harry shouted. The group began laughing and cheering. Remus and Sirius bent down to pull Harry out of the lake.
"Great show." Sirius snorted. "Tell me, was the water cold."
"Why don't you jump in and see for yourself?" Harry retorted, shaking water out of his ears.
"See, he is your son Lils." Sirius grinned. "Listen to that temper."
An hour later, they had retired back to the common room, Harry having been dried in front of the fire. "What are you going to do here?" Remus yawned sleepily. "I mean, are you going to be disguised as James?"
Harry shook his head. "No...we're just going to say that I've been taking home lessons until now, and for our last year our mums decided to have us switch places. I'm supposed to be his cousin. So, don't tell anybody, all right?"
"Oh come on. We're Marauders...rule-breaking is always so much more fun than any other sport...besides Quidditch, that is. Do you play Quidditch at all?" he asked.
Harry grinned. "A little...after being on a broom for the first time in my entire life and catching a Remembrall on a fifty-foot dive, McGonagall made me the youngest ever seeker on a house team in a century."
The group just stared. "That's...wow." Sirius appeared to be drooling. "Our seeker graduated last year...if you're as good as you say you are, you're on the team."
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Hiya! Sorry it's taken me awhile to get this up, but hey, I've been busy with my other four stories! I am an idiot, I know, I really shouldn't be writing five stories at once, but oh well...
Thanks for the great response on the last two chapters! I hadn't decided if I was going to continue this.
Do you think you could do me a favor, though? I still haven't got all that many readers for my other two stories...do you think you could be great, great kiddies and go read them? They are all under Megx...go read, please!
Author's Note: Wow! You like this story, huh? It was an experiment, I didn't know if I would continue, but I guess I will, thanks for all the nice things you said!
Disclaimer: If I was J.K. would I be writing fanfiction? Heck no! I'd be wallowing in my piles of money and writing the NEXT HP book for all us loyal HPFREAKS!
Chapter Three
"How can you be so happy...I mean, knowing what happens to you, and that it can't be changed?" Ron asked James, who was eagerly shoving his food into his mouth. James sat up and swallowed, looking at Ron with amusement.
"Do you think I really believe time can't be changed? Come on. My entire life, I've learned you can get around any rule, no matter how unbreakable it seems. This is just another challenge, and one I fully intend to beat."
Ron sighed. "I just hope you're right."
James snorted. Ron kept glancing at him...he actually looked almost identical to Harry, what with the adjustments made on him. His eyes now looked green, thanks to a clever pair of glasses which changed their shape and color, and a mirror spell had given him a scar on his forehead identical to one on a photo of Harry they had used to make the spell complete.
Hermione walked over and sat down next to them. Ron was glad that she hadn't heard their conversation...she always did tend to get a tad nervous whenever he and Harry talked about rule-breaking...he guessed reasonably that having the infamous Prongs running around school wasn't going to help her already nervous constitution.
"Hey, guys." She said. "Hey, Harry." She said, winking at James.
"That is bound to get confusing." James muttered, pushing away his plate. "What class do we have first today?"
Ron glanced down at his schedule. "Uhm...Divination, it looks like. We're starting advanced flame-scrying today."
"There might be a problem with that." James muttered. "I've never taken Divination...what if I don't know what to do?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You make it up, that is all that Harry and Ron ever do."
James grinned. "Oh, really? Does she believe it?"
"Yeah, if you predict your death enough." Ron sighed. "It has been her yearly prediction to see Harry's death in the near future."
"And how many times has he come close to dying?" James grinned.
"Quite a few times, actually." Ron shrugged. "It gets annoying, after awhile."
They left Hermione and began making their way up to the Divination room. The ladder was already falling from the ceiling, and it looked like the rest of the class had already headed up. "Let's go." Ron said, pointing up.
"Weird." James shimmied up the rope and into the room. He pulled himself up and glanced around, grinning at Lavender and Parvati. "Hello, ladies." He winked. With an astonished look, the two girls giggled.
"Come on, Romeo." Ron sighed, steering James to a table in the back of the room. They were sitting just as Professor Trelawney entered from the shadows.
"Hello, class." She said in a 'mystical' tone. "We are here, in your final year, to fine tune the makings of your inner eye. In this way, we hope to get you in touch with that which you should know, and all that will be."
"And that means..." James started, laughing when Ron poked him in the ribs.
"Harry...I see you still do not take the portents of your inner eye seriously?" she said, frowning. "That would change, if only you saw what I see, Harry. A dark cloud looms over your head, darker than ever before..."
"Wow, you do like to tell---me---I'm going to die, don't you?" James snorted.
The rest of her lecture continued much of the same vein. Finally, the candles were lit and sitting before them. Ron was glad.
Only three teachers in the school knew of the predicament that James and Harry were in. Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore, of course. None of the other teachers had been told, though; Dumbledore supposed having the form of the famous James Potter, albeit the younger form, would cause undue trauma amongst everybody.
"So..." James muttered after staring into the flame after a minute. "What exactly are we looking for?"
"Beats me." Ron shrugged. "All I see is a flame...well, that and little multi-colored spots."
"I see dead people." Neville hissed from a table nearby. Everybody in hearing distance broke into stifled laughter.
"Uhm...and that was about...?"
"Oh, nothing really. Just this muggle movie we all got hold of last year." Ron chuckled. "Now, back to this..." he stared for a few minutes.
James tried to focus, he really did, but he couldn't help the fact that thoughts of 'this is dumb' and 'Lily really looked hot the other day...' kept popping into his head. After another long moment of trying he sat back, skulking.
"Dear, I would be more cautious if I were you." Trelawney said mysteriously as she wandered over to James and Ron.
"And...why exactly?" James said.
"Concentrate, Harry...open your inner eye, let it see the wonders of the future..."
James grinned. "Sorry, my inner eye was up reading late last night and it's a little tired. You wouldn't happen to have a monocle or something for it, would you?"
Trelawney frowned as the entire class broke out laughing. "This does not bode well. I have seen that you will not be with us much longer...in fact, it is almost as if you were gone from us completely..."
"Wonder why that is." He snorted under his breath to Ron, while the two girls who sat up front near Trelawney got astonished looks on their faces and looked pityingly at him.
"Okay...one more go?" Ron said after a moment, when Trelawney had already left. James nodded and started staring one more time into the candle.
He didn't know whether it was the combination of the thick, sickly smelling incense or the quiet staring into the flame, combined with the fact that he had hardly slept the night before, but after a moment James started drifting away.
'I don't know, are you sure about this?' a strangely familiar voice asked.
'Listen, now that Prongs is gone, you, as his son, are going to take his place.' Sirius grinned. 'So buck up, Harry, you're having an adventure!'
'I've had too many lately...' James started when a face that looked almost identical to his came into view. He was standing in a dark hall with the rest---Peter, Sirius, and Remus, and they were going off in the direction of the kitchens...
"What is it?" James jumped and fell out of his seat when a voice much louder than the muffled voices he had just heard sounded right next to his ear. He glanced up, rubbing his head where it had banged on the table. "You...you're scar didn't hurt again, did it?" The boy known as Neville Longbottom was standing over James, a worried look on his face.
"What? No...no..." He slowly got to his feet. Trelawney was rushing over.
"Dear, did you see? Has the future come to you?"
"No...not exactly." He said. Trelawney got an almost hurt look on her face. James turned to whisper to Ron..."But the past did."
************************************************************************
"I'm just glad Harry came when he did." Lily said, leaning back against the couch in the Gryffindor common room. "I mean, if he hadn't our lives would have gone on like they did in his past. Now that we know the future, we can prevent that."
"Yeah...I know what you mean. I am NOT going to let them take me to Azkaban for twelve years." Sirius shuddered. "I mean, I may be a bit of a prankster..."
"A liar..." Peter added.
"A cheater..." Remus said, grinning.
"An all-around..."
"Okay...thanks for helping." Sirius huffed. "As I was saying, I may not be the best person in the world, but I'm not a murderer. Who framed me, anyway?" Sirius said, looking at Harry, who was sitting in a chair before the fire, lost in thought.
"What?" he glanced up, seeing them all looking expectantly at him. "Oh, I don't really know who it was. I haven't learned much about you..." he lied. Remus glanced up at him but didn't say anything...Harry had the strong suspicion that Remus knew he was lying.
But what was he to do? He couldn't depress them all by telling them that the past couldn't be changed. This was his only chance to get to know them as they had been, before Voldemort changed all their lives. This was the only chance he would ever get to know his mum at all, even if she was more like a fellow student than a parent.
"Oh...okay." Sirius turned back, grinning.
"So, tell me..." Remus said after a moment, peering over the book in his hand. "What am I doing in this future of yours?"
"Actually," Harry grinned, "You were my professor for a year."
"A professor?" Sirius scoffed. "How dare you, Remus? Go and betray us like that...Harry, did Remus ever deduct points from you? Did he ever berate you for breaking a rule? Because for that offense, you must die..."
"Sirius, you are the physiological equivalent of a troll's gluteus maximus." Remus said, grinning.
"What?" Sirius said, mouth hanging open.
"He called you a troll's arse." Lily said, shrieking when Sirius reached over to grab her foot and pull her down onto the floor.
Harry watched all this, grinning. After a moment, when things had settled down, Peter turned to Harry. This was what Harry had been dreading...he was prepared.
"So...what am I doing?" he said, grinning. Harry was flustered.
"Oh...well, I don't really know much about you. After my dad and...Lily died, I guess you didn't keep in touch. I think I heard you were...working in the ministry."
"The ministry, Pettigrew?" Sirius said, making a face. "Come on, chap, you can do better than that. Peter, you're going to be an auror with me, you hear? Adventure, excitement...and hot witches in skimpy robes!" Sirius ducked as Lily sent a blow in his general direction.
"I'll pass on the adventure and excitement." Peter said, making a face. "How about just letting me lead a nice, peaceful..."
"Nope." Sirius said, shaking his head. "You can't do that...not now that you've taken the oath of the Marauders."
Harry's head shot up...the marauders? Did that mean...
"What oath?" Harry said cautiously. "Do you mean...the one on the Marauder's Map?" he said. All of the group turned to look at him.
"Yes..." Sirius said. "Did you get the map from your dad?"
Harry shook his head. "No...I got it from my friend's brothers. They found it in Filch's cabinet of highly dangerous..."
"Highly dangerous?" Sirius said, pretending to blush. "Aww...that makes me feel special. After all, that map was our very own creation..."
"Yeah," Lily snorted, "Even though it required my help to make. Honestly, you boys would be dead by now if I hadn't helped you out on most of your little 'adventures.' "
"Yes, but if you've seen the map..." Sirius said, slowly turning to Harry, "then you need to take the oath."
They were all looking at him now...Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Uhm...what are you going to do?" he said nervously.
"Oh, nothing..." Sirius said. "Just...GRAB HIM!" On Sirius' command Remus and Peter rushed forward to grab Harry's arms and legs. Sirius and Lily followed, Lily laughing loudly.
"Don't worry!" she shouted. "They've done this to me before, it's all part of their weird little initiation for some odd reason."
Harry watched the ceiling fly past as they ran with him out the common room and down the hall. A group of Hufflepuffs burst out laughing when he passed, and still they carried him, further and further until they burst through the doors of the great hall, leading him on and on until Harry was certain where they were taking him.
"The Lake!" Harry felt his stomach do a somersault as he was tossed, arms flailing, into the cold, icy water.
"That was a good one, Peter." Remus commented. "We must have gotten him about thirty feet."
"Yeah...been working on my arm, I have." Peter grinned. Harry waded to the surface, remembering in the back of his mind the second challenge of the Triwizard tournament in his fourth year.
The group turned to look at him, Lily stifling giggles. "Say it!" Sirius cried. "Say it!"
Before long the group started chanting it, over and over. "Say it! Say it! Say it! Say it!"
"Say what?" Harry said, spitting water out of his mouth.
"Say the oath!" Remus cried.
Oath? Yes, that was right...the Marauder's Map...
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good!" Harry said, bobbing under the water for a moment.
"What was that?" Sirius said, cupping a hand behind his ear. "I couldn't hear you."
"I SOLEMNLY SWEAR I AM UP TO NO GOOD!" Harry shouted. The group began laughing and cheering. Remus and Sirius bent down to pull Harry out of the lake.
"Great show." Sirius snorted. "Tell me, was the water cold."
"Why don't you jump in and see for yourself?" Harry retorted, shaking water out of his ears.
"See, he is your son Lils." Sirius grinned. "Listen to that temper."
An hour later, they had retired back to the common room, Harry having been dried in front of the fire. "What are you going to do here?" Remus yawned sleepily. "I mean, are you going to be disguised as James?"
Harry shook his head. "No...we're just going to say that I've been taking home lessons until now, and for our last year our mums decided to have us switch places. I'm supposed to be his cousin. So, don't tell anybody, all right?"
"Oh come on. We're Marauders...rule-breaking is always so much more fun than any other sport...besides Quidditch, that is. Do you play Quidditch at all?" he asked.
Harry grinned. "A little...after being on a broom for the first time in my entire life and catching a Remembrall on a fifty-foot dive, McGonagall made me the youngest ever seeker on a house team in a century."
The group just stared. "That's...wow." Sirius appeared to be drooling. "Our seeker graduated last year...if you're as good as you say you are, you're on the team."
************************************************************************
Hiya! Sorry it's taken me awhile to get this up, but hey, I've been busy with my other four stories! I am an idiot, I know, I really shouldn't be writing five stories at once, but oh well...
Thanks for the great response on the last two chapters! I hadn't decided if I was going to continue this.
Do you think you could do me a favor, though? I still haven't got all that many readers for my other two stories...do you think you could be great, great kiddies and go read them? They are all under Megx...go read, please!
