Title: Time's Veil
Author: The Fifth Marauder
Rating: PG-13 for mild language
Date Started: June 22, 2004
Chapter Two
Chapter Started: December 14, 2004
The Great Hall was just as Sirius remembered it. Even when he'd sneaked into the castle the year of his escape from Azkaban, he'd noticed a few minor differences from his own school days. This, though, this was leaping back in time. It wasn't at all like his hazy memories of the school he'd so loved. This was it. Remus sat beside him at the Gryffindor table come breakfast, and James and Peter took their usual seats opposite them.
Little Peter ran his pudgy hands over his bed-mussed corn-coloured hair, still warily avoiding Sirius's eye. Sirius himself couldn't concentrate on food, or even on glaring at the small boy across from him. He was too enthralled by the sight of everything and everyone around him. Each time James would kick at him under the table to get him to pay attention, his heart gave a gleeful leap. His best friend was back again, alive, and he no longer had to hide himself away in the shadows, nor watch from afar and live in complete solitude. He didn't have to keep out of the thick of things. These were the days when he was the thick of things.
"Alright lads," James was saying, leaning forward, one elbow on the tabletop, his hand gesturing like mad. Sirius grinned, watching him. He'd forgotten how Prongs used to move and speak with such enthusiasm. "The full moon's coming up, just about a week to go. I was thinking --" James stopped talking quite abruplty, and blinked his wide hazel eyes, staring at something behind Sirius.
Turning curiously, Sirius smirked, then shook his head. Lily Evans was passing by, on her way to the opposite side of the long house table. James's eyes followed her every move with near obsession until she was completely out of sight. "Did you see that look she gave me?" he asked, a smug smile curling his lips as he sat up straighter, ruffling his fingers through his hair. "The one of disgust? Yeah, we saw it." Said Remus, smiling a bit and shutting the book he had propped on his lap under the table.
Sirius laughed along with Peter, and James rolled his eyes, waving his hand dismissivley. "Don't be stupid," He said. "She's playing hard to get. Girls do that, you know. She'll come around." Moony leaned back a bit, turning his attention back to his now-cold sausage, spearing a bit with his fork. "Whatever you say, James." He commented quietly, and Peter giggled a little. The blonde was silenced almost instantly as Sirius raised his grey eyes, shimmering with distaste, up to him.
If the other two noticed the small exchange, they said nothing. It wasn't unheard of for Wormtail to grate on Sirius's nerves. James's, too, on occasion. Padfoot turned his chin down a bit, ignoring his full plate in favour of his thoughts. Maybe his whole adult life had been a dream? Peter was, after all, one of his best friends, back in school. The more he grew used to his schoolboy mentality, the more absurd it seemed that his small friend would ever betray them. Pausing, he was almost completely ready to pass off everything he remembered as a mere nightmare. It was then that he remembered Azkaban, and that familiar chill ran through him.
No. No, Azkaban was too horrible to be an incarnation of his subconsious.
"Padfoot, going to faint again?" James's teasing voice suggested, and Sirius glanced up at him, rolling his eyes. "Git," he accused, shifting his shoulders. His friend grinned that bright, toothy expression of his. "You paled, suddenly." He told Sirius, and the other animagus simply shrugged. "I'm tired," He replied, fishing for an excuse and finding only that a plausible one.
Remus brushed his mop of chocolate-coloured hair from his eyes, shifting his book into the crook of his arm. "We should get going," He commented quietly, turning clear eyes from his watch up to Sirius, who looked over at him with an expression that could only pass for a mixture between irritation and amusement. His studious friend simply smiled in reply, and moved to stand. "Divination," he said, to clarify. Moony was the only one who kept James and Sirius from skipping classes completely. The two were clever, but with their cleverness came that foolish haughtiness of a boy who thinks he knows everything.
Peter stood after James did, and Sirius was the last to rise. He took another long look around the Great Hall, shifting his robes around his legs. James glanced up at him, half-way down the table. "Padfoot! What are you ogling? You act like you haven't seen the place in years!"
Sirius couldn't remember ever having been so interested in any class he'd attended as a boy as he was this day, with Divination. Why had Voldemort gone into the Department of Mysteries? For a prophecy...What about that prophecy...? The black-haired youth watched Professor Mugwart with rapt attention, so much that even Remus had to comment.
Leaning over, the werewolf whispered to him under their professor's nasal tone, "Why interested, suddenly? Term's almost over and now you decide you want to listen?" Sirius turned his head to the side a little, shifting in the armchair in which he sat. He, Remus, James and Peter were seated around a table at the back of the classroom, nearest to the window. "Well," He said, inclining his head a bit to speak closer to Moony's ear. "When I have a question, I want it answered." He left it at that, and his friend blinked, puzzled.
"What are you talking about?" James asked, raising his eyebrows and turning his eyes up from the table (onto which he was scratching 'JP LE') and watching Sirius intently. "You said it yourself, Divination's the most useless of magical practices. Then you went on to tell us about how you thought we should magic up some new prank toys and stop wasting our education." This prompted a laugh from Peter and Sirius, and Remus lifted a hand to his mouth to stifle his own chuckle.
Sirius leaned back a bit, folding his arms over his chest, all traces of laughter gone from his face. He peered down at his knees, shifting in the denim of his jeans. "Well maybe...now I'm not so sure." He couldn't very well tell James that he was trying to prevent his early demise. No, what Sirius did to change their undeserving future had to be done alone.
But where was he to start?
The Gryffindor common room was abuzz with excitement, as it usually was on Friday evenings. It was a Hogsmede weekend, or so said the notice posted on the wall beside adds like 'Dungbombs, cheap!' and 'Broom for sale, just slightly broken.'
"This should be fun," James commented in a growling undertone, and Sirius smirked a bit. They stood close together, James leaning against the stone hearth of the fireplace, Sirius beside him, his back to the wall. Remus had engrossed himself in another book after shining and re-shining his Prefect's badge, and Peter was busy setting up a game of exploding snap on the floor beside Remus's chair.
Sirius stretched absently, yawning. He was deep in reflection, barely hearing his friend when he spoke. Wracking his brain, Sirius was determined to dig up every memory that his adult mind retained from his fifth year at Hogwarts. But there was a growing anxiety in the pit of his stomach whenever he looked at James. How long would this little time travel trip last? Would he come back, suddenly and adult again, on the other side of the veil?
He shivered at the thought. Then what would this have accomplished? He needed to change something, if not for his sake, or for James's, than for Harry's. Yes, Harry's...that boy deserved to know his father. He deserved to see his mother's face, to know her smile, and not only from photographs. Sirius's abandoned his thoughts and worries, and focused his mind on memories of Harry. He couldn't remember the last time he saw his godson smile, and that troubled him deeply.
"James?" he said quietly, in what was almost a helpless tone, so alien that James turned his head sharply, eyebrows raised. "Yeah?" his messy-haired friend said in reply, standing up and letting his folded arms fall to his sides. "What's the date?" Sirius asked him, smirking a bit, and James rolled his eyes, all surprise and concern melting from his face. "November the twenty-third," He answered, chuckling. "Don't do that." He added, and Sirius shrugged, smiling.
Then he paused. "Did you say November twenty-third?" he asked tensely, his entire body seeming to go rigid. "Yeah, Padfoot. Why?" Said James, reaching out a bit as if to touch Sirius's shoulder. "What's the matter? You look sick." Sirius just froze, memories flooding back to him all at once. The weekend of November the twenty-third was the date of the Marauders' closest call of all time. Tomorrow was the day that Hogwarts almost saw the last of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.
(A/N: Woo! Cliff-hanger-y! Whew, it was more difficult to write this chapter than the first one... ;; I have all these plans for later on in the story, but the beginning is still kind of coming to me. Yes. So. Next chapter, bum bum bu-u-u-um...some bad stuff happens. :D I want to thank everybody who reviewed. I love you! o Reviews make me happy because I'm prideful and I'm a horrible person. :3 Yes, so, sorry this chapter jumps around so much...it's hard to keep the Marauders in one place. xX; I'm going to try and update this fic at least weekly, 'cause it's going to be a long story. Please keep reading. :D)