Harry Potter and the Diamond Studded Compass
Chapter 3
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, September Third, Midnight, 1996

A/N: Sorry this took so long. You know by now that I'm writing 11 stories at once and it just depends on what I feel like writing. So read and then press the purple button and review.

Harry sat on the ground, gaping at the three boys before him, who looked to be his age.

"Pretty nice, aren't they?" said the middle boy, "Been workin' on them for a while now. Finally perfected them enough to be put to use. Took a few trips to the Jurassic to get the whole thing right, though."

"Who are you exactly?" asked Harry awkwardly.

"Thought it'd be obvious, Harry," said the boy with long black hair.

"Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs," said the brown haired boy as he gestured to the boys on either side of him as he said the names, and pointing to himself when he said 'Moony.'

"Wormtail's...shall we say...opt not to take this trip with us," said Padfoot.

"Hang on," said Harry, rising to his feet, a finger poised pointing at Prongs, "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs...the Marauders (Moony nodded, and Harry looked back to Prongs)...you're my - "

"Just a friend," said Prongs, "Wondered about you a little, the four of us did. Saw you defeated Voldemort when you were a mere one year old. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. Wanted to meet you in person."

"He's defeated Voldemort loads of times," said Ron, finally talking. He stood up from his perch on the dead tree stump and walked over to the other four guys. Hermione followed, not wanting to be alone in the dark at night, and not wanting to be left out of the conversation. After all, she had been dragged into this, although she went by her own free will, for Harry, and this was sounding important...and sounding more interesting as the conversation went further.

"Eh?" Prongs looked at the black-haired boy, Padfoot, intrigued.

"Wait...how did you even know in the first place that - " he looked at the Deluxe Time Turner in his hand and frowned.

"You better not go messing around with time," he said, looking up, "You could get into real trouble."

"What's trouble?" laughed Moony.

"He's right," said Hermione, "you could get into trouble. Not just every day trouble, like getting in trouble with Snape, but real - "

"Snape?" asked Padfoot, also sounding intrigued.

"What about Snape?" asked Ron, sounding none too pleased about the subject.

"How do you know Snivelly?" asked Prongs, amused now as well. That's right, Harry thought, they know him from school...he's their age in their time now...

"Snivelly?" inquired Hermione. Harry smiled a bit. It had to be a nickname. His smile faded quickly after that thought, and his face went back to seriousness.

"You three should go back to came from and leave the Time Turners with me before you do ruin time."

"Relax," said Padfoot, smiling, "We have everything figured out and taken care of. There's an option on these where you can just change everything back to the way it was before anything had happened. Plus, if it's really that bad, a mild memory charm could be in order along with the reversal."

"We're thinking about looking around the place," said Moony. Harry couldn't believe his ears, or reality. This was his former Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher talking. He was always, to Harry, play-by-the-rules Lupin.

"Yeah see what...the future of Hogwarts looks like," said Padfoot.

"No...you three have to go back. What would people say?" said Hermione.

"They don't know us!" protested Padfoot.

"I'm talking about the teachers, Sirius!" Sirius was silent for a while.

"I think they know us, Prongsy," he said to Prongs, who of course, was James Potter.

"If you come back with us to the castle, we'll explain everything," said Harry. Ron looked at him.

"Weren't you just telling them to go back?" he said.

"I've changed my mind," replied Harry flatly. It was clear that he wanted to spend time with his dad...and see what he was like when he was 16. He and the Marauders...what they were like in their golden days.

"Are you mad?" Hermione interjected, "Harry, it's dangerous." Harry looked at her and gave her a look of finality. He wasn't discussing anything further - at least with his father, his godfather, and his mentor around.

"You three can head up to the castle," he said, looking back at the Marauders.

"I think we will," said James, "Moony? Padfoot?"

"Prongs? Moony?" said Padfoot.

"Padfoot? Prongs?" said Moony. The three turned on their heels and began walking back through the forest in the direction of the castle. Harry looked at Ron and Hermione and sighed.

"Look. That's my dad and godfather over there, who are both dead. After thinking about it a bit, I've decided that I'm not letting them get away so easily. As long as they're here, this is my chance to get to know them both. This is my chance to spend time with them both. This is my chance to see the Marauders in action. Three of them, anyway."

"I'm sure if Peter was here, anyway, you'd be on the ground strangling him by now," said Ron, smiling a tad.

"I hav a bit more control than that, Ron," said Harry, not the least bit offended. He bent over and picked up his Invisibility cloak, and draped it over his arm, then began walking, Hermione and Ron both following.

"Well, I'm sure you do, Harry, but I mean...he betrayed your parents and everything...I don't think you'd exactly be thrilled if he just showed up here as a 16 year old."

"I wouldn't be able to do anything to him. It would change the future," said Harry.

"That's right," said Hermione, "That's why those three have to go back."

"Will we know if the future changes?" asked Ron, "How will we know?"

"We'll know," said Hermione. "Well," she corrected, "we won't. But things will change abruptly and we'll realize for a brief minute that what just happened wasn't supposed to. Then, we won't know at all because it'll be like our lives before the change hadn't happened."

"But maybe this was supposed to happen," suggested Ron.

"Right," said Harry, "Maybe that's what really happened when they were 16...they came and found us with those time turners. How could it be different if we're not doing anything that would change their 16 year old lives?"

"You have a point," said Hermione.

"Then, what does it matter what we do? Everything will be the same anyway," said Ron, shrugging.

"But they eventually have to go back. They can't stay here forever," said Hermione, pointedly.

"Of course they can't," said Harry, "They'll go back when they realize that they're supposed to."

"Or when you tell them to," said Hermione, looking serious now, "They wouldn't when we all told them just now."

"Then we'll force them to," said Harry boldly.

"Or that..." said Hermione. "I'm trusting you on this, Harry," she said, "But if anything happens, it's not my fault."

"Right," said Ron, sarcastically, "Just like when you got us in trouble when you gave McGonagall - "

"Ronald!" Harry snorted.

"Oh yes, we're not to mention that again," said Ron, smirking, trying not to laugh. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Shh...we have to get back in now," said Harry. The three had caught up with the Marauders and they were crammed under Harry's cloak, which was very uncomfortable, of course. The Marauders seemed to be having fun with it though. The six were stepping on each other, and bumping heads. Moony had accidentally stumbled into a small hole in the ground, and elbowed Padfoot in the ribs at one point. It had taken them all of twelve minutes to get from the edge of the forest to the main entrance. Ron had had the idea of leaving an extremely large stone between the two doors to hold one open, so they weren't locked out when they got back, and luckily, it was still in place.

"Okay...on the count of three, we all crouch down," whispered Harry, "I'll move the stone and open the door. Ready? One...two...three." They all bent down, heads slamming into each others, and the Marauders trying to contain their laughter, with little success. Harry put both hands on the stone, and pushed it, using all of his strength, out of the way, then caught the door and pulled it open. The 6 walked in, and let the door shut slowly. After a long while, they reached the portrait hole, and Harry pulled the cloak free of their heads.

"Pickled Gnome," he said quietly. This was pointless because the Fat Lady was sleeping. Harry scowled.

"Pickled Gnome," he repeated a little louder. The Marauders were snickering amongst themselves, Hermione frowning in disapproval.

"Pickled Gnome!" Harry almost shouted the words, and the Fat Lady, dozing in her frame, snorted and opened her eyes.

"Hm? Oh. Go in." Her portrait slowly opened and all six crawled in. Ron turned on a light and looked at one of the large couches in the room, which was now occupied by Remus, Sirius, and James.

"The castle hasn't changed much," said James, "But of course it's dark now. I trust you'll give us the Grand Tour tomorrow, Harry Potter."

"Um...yeah..." said Harry, looking at Hermione. She still didn't look too happy and finally expressed why.

"Your shoes are on the couch," she said. Sirius turned his head and gave her a funny look.

"So?" he asked. She was a bit tense for a brief moment, then she relaxed and just stood there watching the three Marauders ruin the couch.

"I thought that the Fat Lady'd remember us, don't you, Padfoot?" piped up James.

"Mmhm," replied Sirius, hands behind his head, modeling the other two. "We'd come and chat with her, the four of us. I'll wager she got a bit annoyed with us after a while. Our time was after hours."

"We brought chairs too," added Moony with a chuckle. "It's kind of odd talking in past tense. But it's the only way you'll understand."

"Well, she was sleeping," said Ron, "She just let us in."

"It's a good thing she didn't know anyway," said Harry, "We want to sort of keep this underwraps. If someone finds out who you are - "

"There are enough people here that would know," said Sirius, "Dumbledore, I'm assuming he's still here, Um...McGonagall."

"Snape would know you," said Harry. The three looked at him.

"That's right, Snivelly. You didn't say why he's here," said Prongs, interested just as much as the other two of his friends.

"He's the Potions teacher," said Hermione, no expression in her voice.

"Reeeaaallly," said Sirius, looking around at James and Lupin.

"You said something about the four of us," said Hermione.

"That's right. Where is Peter?" Harry ended, walking around the couch and sitting next to his father.

"Really," said Hermione seriously, "Where is he?"

"Well, I'm afraid we had a bit of a row with him," said Lupin, sitting up, his feet off the couch now.

"A row?" asked Harry skeptically, crossing to one of the armchairs and sinking into it.

"Yeah...we were vandalizing the bathroom on the - "

"We weren't exactly vandalizing it, Sirius," snapped James, "We - hang on...how do you know the fourth marauder?"

"Er...it was in the newspaper," said Harry carefully. He didn't know exactly how to explain that James was going to be his father. At least now...he thought that he should in a few days, if they were there that long, or not at all. But then maybe, just maybe, this was all supposed to happen and Harry was supposed to tell his father, godfather, and former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher the truth. If he were them though, he'd think it disturbing if someone told him that he was going to be put into Azkaban for the accusation of having murdered someone, or if he was told that he was going to be killed by Voldemort, of if he was told that he was made Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher...and resigned because he revealed the truth of being a werewolf.

"Ah," said Lupin.

"So anyway...we were vandalizing the bathroom (James rolled his eyes) on the sixth floor and Peter decided to come...but then he decided after that, to tell a few people about it during Transfiguration...and well, the rest is self-explanatory. To say the least, we got detention."

"And he didn't get to come with us," added Lupin.

"And oh how he wanted to," finished Sirius. Thinking about telling the three: 'That's only the beginning of the betrayal's he'll leave you to deal with', he nodded.

"So," said Sirius sitting up and clapping his hands together, "Are we coming to classes with you?"

"No," said Hermione, "Like I stated but a few minutes ago, what would people who know you say? Snape and McGonagall are surely going to notice you - not to mention Dumbledore."

"Relax, Brainy, we have it under control," said Sirius, trying to be reassuring. Hermione scowled.

"I'm not "Brainy." I'm Hermione to you."

"Whatever, Herms," Sirius responded, waving his hand dismissively.

"Come on, guys...you can sleep upstairs," said Harry.

"What are we going to tell Seamus, Neville, and Dean?" asked Ron.

"I'll think of something," said Harry, "Come on." He led the Marauders up to his dormitory and when the door shut, Ron looked at Hermione, who was still scowling.

"What's up?" asked Ron, smirking.

"Sirius Black is a pompous ass," retorted Hermione angrily. Ron chuckled.

"Remember we helped him escape," said Ron, "And stayed with him in Grimmauld Place last year."

"I know we did. I'm just not sure if I like his 16 year old personality. He's so like...like Malfoy." Ron raised his eyebrows.

"Goodnight, Hermione. I'll allow you to stew about that." Hermione kicked him in the shin and stormed upstairs.

A/N: I didn't know of anything on the 6th floor so I used that one. And I think that's about it. This chapter is sorta short and boring and not containing much interesting content (except the end with Ron and Hermione...I really like that part hahaha)...but er...don't worry, it gets better. There's gunna be a class with Thatcher (swoons), and one with Tonks, and one with Snape in the next chapter..and that class is gunna be funny. LOL. Okay, please don't lose my trust on this. Keep readin and if u haven't already, read my other stories. (wink, wink) Golden Bell (wink, wink) it's almost done and the sequel is most likely coming out in October or November depending on both if I finish the first one before October and if doing that allows me a little break to start chapter 3 of the sequel. Hahaha...yes, I've been working on it, and I won't tell those of you who HAVE read it what's going to happen.