Author's Note: Hey look! A Harry Potter fic! Yes, I too have been bitten by the Harry Potter bug. I actually thought this idea up while I was going through an obsession with all fics that dealt with James travelling forward in time. So this little plot bunny hopped right up and bit me in the ass. I let it kick around for while before deciding I actually liked it. So here is the first part in what is probably going to be fairly long fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine, never mine. *sob* I can only hope that one day I'll be a great writer like JK Rowling.
Mind
"James, tell me again what we're doing here."
James grinned up at Sirius while adding some spinal root into the potion. "Don't you want to see what's in your future?" He tossed another ingredient into the mix, and then leaned back to look at his friends gathered around him.
Sirius was smiling, his black hair blending in with darkness of the potions room. It was late and well past the time when they were required to be back in the common room. Sirius, however seemed to be revelling in the rule breaking. His eyes were sparkling with mirth, and he fidgeted as waited for James to finish the potion.
Peter, on the other hand, looking decidedly nervous as he glanced around the room, almost as if expecting somebody to jump out at them. He was currently wishing that James would just forget about this future potion and head back to bed.
Remus was seated next to James, his brown hair hung down over his eyes. "James, why are we doing this? You said that Divination is a waste of time," he asked curiously.
James shrugged, brushing a hand through his messy black hair. "It not really Divination, beside I think it will really work."
"Well, then lets get on with it," Sirius exclaimed.
James grinned, reached over for the last ingredient and tossed it into the mix. The potion, which had previously been a sludgy kind of brown, sparked and green smoke billowed off it. The boys ducked, and when the smoke stopped they peeked over the edge of the caldron. The potion now shimmered a dark blue; it looked like a thunderstorm, as bursts of light ran through it randomly.
"Wow," James whispered. He leaned closer as something flickered in the liquid, and slowly an image formed. It was a little smoky but James could clearly see a boy stretched out on a bed, asleep. The image cleared even more, and James recognized the Gryffindor dorm room. The boy lying on the bed looked remarkably like him, but he noticed a few small differences. The boy was slimmer and paler than him, and he had a look about him that made it seem like he'd seen a lot more than a boy his age should have. But those differences were nothing compared to the remarkable likeness, the black tousled hair was the same, and the face was so similar to the one he saw in the mirror every day. The boy was even dressed in the familiar black robes that James wore every day in Hogwarts.
"James, what do you see?" Remus asked, but James didn't reply. In fact he barely heard the whispered question. He leaned closer, wanted to get a better look at the boy lying there.
It happened fast. James, leaning closer, slipped on the smooth stone floor and tumbled forward, his hand hitting the edge of the caldron, sending the potion spilling over onto him.
The last thing he heard was his friends' stunned cries as he tumbled into blackness.
James woke slowly, stretching and yawning before opening his eyes. He blinked them opened and glanced around the dorm, his brow furrowing in confusion as he realized it was empty and, if the light shining in through the window was anything the tell by, far past morning.
His reached over to the table where he kept his glasses and slipped them on while he stood up. And almost fell flat on his face.
He was still dressed in his robes, which explained why he hadn't been under the covers, but that wasn't what was causing him so much trouble. His balance felt all wrong and the only reason he wasn't on the ground was because he had been quick enough to grab the bed.
He shook his head and shuffled a few feet away from the bed, and slowly he felt his balance returning, but something still felt wrong. He remembered what had happened, and it seemed strange that Sirius, Remus or Peter weren't here and if he had fainted, which he was pretty sure he had, why had they just dropped him off in bed. He should have woken up in the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey hovering over him. For all their pranks they always made sure to take care of each other and it was most definitely not like them to just ditch him in the dorm.
James sighed, and walked, slowly in case his balance decided to disappear, towards the bathroom, not even looking around him as he did. His first glance into the mirror shocked him so badly he had to grab onto the sink just to stay standing.
It wasn't him in the mirror, in fact he recognized the boy he'd seen in the potion. The green eyes and the scar on the forehead were the most obvious differences. But on closer inspection he saw more differences.
Taking deep breaths, James told himself not to panic, he was sure that there was an explanation, he would just need to speak to one of the teachers, he could handle a few months' detentions.
His breathing slowed as he got himself under control. It's fine, he thought, I can handle this. Stranger things have happened.
And at that point, Harry woke up.
Harry had been having a bad day.
Nothing had been the same since the end of last year, with Voldemort's return and Cedric's death. He knew his friends were worried about him but after spending all summer keeping his feelings bottled up he didn't think he could just let them out. Not without exploding.
So when the first thing Hermione asked when she saw him was how was he feeling, he began to think that this day might not be the greatest. The question itself wasn't so bad but the fact that Hermione asked it every time she saw him was. Even that wouldn't have been so bad if Ron hadn't decided to join them and ask the exact some question.
Then to top it off they had Potions first thing in the morning with the Slytherins and for some reason Snape had decided to be especially nasty to Harry, making snide comments left and right. He'd paired him with Neville to make a shrinking potion, which had thankfully needed to sit over night, but that didn't stop Neville from almost added newt's eyes instead of salamander's eyes, which would have caused a spectacular explosion. And Neville had spent the rest of the class apologizing so much that Harry felt he should have let the potion explode.
Neville wasn't the only one acting like Harry was made of glass, everybody was. And it was driving him crazy. People he didn't even know were asking him how he was doing. Acting like he was just going to break at any moment.
Today was just an accumulation of everything. Once out of Potions he just couldn't face going to Charms and watching Flitwick act, poorly, like everything was fine.
So he'd left. Telling Ron and Hermione that he just needed to get some sleep. The sad expressions on their faces had almost made him go back, try to let out those broiling feelings inside him, but he just couldn't. However much he wanted to, he just couldn't, so he'd walked away and hadn't looked back.
The common room had been empty, as had the dorm. Harry had flung himself on the bed and closed his eyes just trying to shut out the world, at least for a little while. He fell asleep only moments after closing his eyes.
He woke up to the oddest sensation, no blinking. He'd never woken up before and found his eyes already open. And everything felt… different but familiar. He was looking in a mirror, which was strange because he'd just woken up, he should have been in bed.
Then he moved, or at least his body did. But Harry hadn't been the one to move it.
Harry felt it now; the presence that shouldn't have been there. And he could felt the presence's shock as it sensed him as well. And for a moment, Harry felt a wave relief that he didn't have to be in control anymore but he quickly shook the feeling off and shoved it back in the vault with all the rest.
Who are you? What are you doing in my body? Harry demanded.
He felt only surprise in response to his questions. So he gathered in his strength and lunged, not really knowing how he did it, trying to shove the presence out of the way so that he could regain control, and for just one second he succeeded before a blast of fear accompanied by the presence sent him back into his mind, where all he could do was watch.
James was so stunned by the questions, by the very fact that there was somebody else there, that when the force hit him he just went flying.
The pain hit him like a tone of bricks. The second he was knocked out of control he felt like he was being crushed in a grinder while being pulled apart. Fear rocketed through him, and he threw himself towards the person in control knocking them out of the way. The pain stopped as soon as he was back in control and for a second he worried that that was what the other person was feeling, but he realized the only feelings he was picking up were ones of surprise, anger and worry.
Wait! Wait! James yelled in an attempt to stop another attack. I don't mean any harm.
He gave a sigh of relieve when he felt the presence back off a little. He unclenched his hands from the edge of the sink and quickly sat down on the floor.
Okay, first, my name is James Potter and this…His sentence dropped off as the other person's amazement hit him like a physical blow, the amazement was quickly followed by suspicion.
You can't be James Potter.
Well I am. I don't know how this happened. Last thing I remember was me, Pad… Sirius, Remus and Peter mixing up that potion. Then I woke up in your body.
Silence descended. James could feel the other person working his way through what he had just been told. He couldn't hear what was being thought, he only caught the emotions but they were too confusing to make sense of. Denial. Fear. Suspicion. Joy, which really surprised him, cause he couldn't understand how this situation could make somebody happy.
Finally, he got a reply.
My name is Harry Potter. And I think I've got a lot of explaining to do.
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Yay! A first chapter! I hope you liked it and you know the best way of showing how much you liked it would be to review. *hint hint* I love getting mail, or if you really want you can probably talk with me on MSN messenger at: Savanna_moon@hotmail.com. Now I really can't think of much else to say except, I suck at naming fics, so if anybody wants to help with a better name or an opinion of what they think of the name it has now please feel free to voice your opinions.