A/N- Here is a cute one-shot to appease those of you waiting for me to continue my Lily/James saga, Seventh Year Changes
Disclaimer: Okay all you money hungry publishers, DON'T SUE ME! Harry and his friends, parents etc. are not mine!!!!
Sixteen-year-old Harry Potter sat alone in his dormitory, staring at the two sets of initials carved onto the bedpost in front of him. They were both instantly familiar, but he couldn't imagine why he hadn't spotted them before. It was probably because they weren't carved into his bedpost. They were engraved into the post of Neville's four poster bed.
With Neville, Seamus and Dean away for the Christmas holidays, Harry and Ron had had the dormitory to themselves. Ron was currently on Prefect's duties with Hermione, helping clean up the Great Hall, so Harry had decided to finish a hideous Potions essay Snape had set before the start of the Christmas Break. He had been slogging his way through it when a large barn owl had flown in, carrying two parcels, and dropped it on Neville's bed. Curious, he had checked who it was addressed to and saw one was addressed to Harry and the other to Neville.
It had been then when he had noticed the two sets of initials, and the symbol which circled them both; a heart drawn around the letters J.P. L.E.
Harry immediately knew who those initials stood for. His parents. James Potter and Lily Evans.
His stomach gave an enormous lurch. Neville's bed must've been his father's old bed. He was sitting in his father's bed.
He reached forward, wondering when they were carved. He touched them, running his fingers over the wood, trying hopelessly to get some kind of feel of his parents. He closed his eyes, and wished frantically that somehow, someway he could see when, where, how and why these were carved.
Harry opened his eyes.
The room looked different. It looked somehow… newer. The beds looked cleaner, the curtains brighter. He looked at the spot where the initials had been, and couldn't believe his eyes. They weren't there.
What had happened?
Where was he?
Or furthermore, when was he?
It seemed to Harry that he had gone back in time; it seemed very much as if he were in a Pensieve.
But he wasn't in a Pensieve. He had just been sitting on Neville's bed, wishing he could see when his parents' initials were carved into the po-
Ah.
That was it.
But… how?
He got up, wondering what to do. He could hear commotion coming from downstairs in the common room. Some kind of party was being thrown.
Before he could finish his train of thought, he was interrupted by voices which seemed much closer than the common room.
"… I wonder how long it'll take for them to realise we're not still there?"
"They're all caught up in the party mood, they won't care."
Harry recognised those voices. He remembered them from last year, when he had gained a glimpse into the world of his teenage year old parents. And sure enough, into the dormitory walked his mother and father, hand in hand. They looked older than when he had last seen them; they had to have been in their last year of school. Without noticing Harry, James led Lily to sit next to him on the bed.
She smiled at James. Harry suddenly wished he had a camera. This was how he would've loved to have seen his parents.
"What are you looking at?" said James abruptly, and Harry thought for a moment they could see him. But James was being silly; he was staring straight at Lily.
Lily laughed and kissed him briefly on the lips before replying. "Oh, just my boyfriend who happens to be the best Quiddich player in Hogwarts and also the most wonderful, kind, adorable, sweet, and naturally talented person in this school."
James grinned. "You left something off the list. I'm also the best looking guy at Hogwarts."
Lily laughed, slapping him playfully on the arm. "No silly, Sirius is the best looking guy at Hogwarts."
Sirius. Harry's stomach gave a huge jolt and the now familiar wave of sadness washed over him.
His parents, unaware of the terrible tragedy which would befall both them and their friends in time to come were still being extremely lovey dovey. James was pretending to look hurt, sticking out his lower lip. "Well if that's how you feel I won't give you what I brought you up here for."
"Well, in a manner of speaking… but now I think you might prefer it to come from Sirius instead, now your true feelings are out in the open."
Lily giggled, rolling her eyes. "What is it?"
He shook his head. "No… I'm not telling now."
"Well… I'll just have to force it out of you." And she began tickling him, and he tickled her back, which led to the two of them getting lost in an enormous fit of shrieking giggles.
Harry grinned at his crazy, laughing parents. They were behaving just like teenagers. Which was probably because they i were i teenagers.
They had stopped shrieking, and were looking at each other rather earnestly now. James, after fixing his crooked glasses, brushed a piece of Lily's hair which had come loose from her ponytail behind one ear. He kissed her on the cheek. "What ever did I do to deserve you, Evans?"
She smiled. "I don't know… I think it had something to do with the fact that you stopped calling me by my last name."
"Sorry, old habits die hard and all."
Lily laughed. "That's okay, Potter… no problem."
James looked into her eyes, smiling. "Besides, I love saying your name. Lily. Lily. Lily. It's pure heaven. Rolls right off the tongue."
She shook her head, blushing slightly. "You know James… even though we've been going out for quite a while, you can still make me blush."
"And you look gorgeous, Lily, when you blush… Your blush is number eight in the top ten things I adore about you."
She giggled. "You have a top ten Lily list?"
"Oh yes."
"I know I'm just fishing for compliments here, but what's the top five?"
"Ahh… the top five… Well, number five is your adorable freckles."
"My freckles?"
James sighed. "Yes, the gorgeous freckles on your nose. You have fifteen, did you know? Fifteen freckles across your nose."
"You've counted my freckles?"
"Of course! And I adore every last one of them."
She beamed at him. "Number four?"
"Well, number four has to be your hair. Your beautiful, thick and extremely sexy hair."
"Oh James." She was blushing again.
"Well… I do adore your hair Lily. It's gorgeous." And as if to prove it, James tucked another loose tendril behind her ear. "Number three is your voice. Every time I hear it unexpectedly I get shivers all over me."
Harry noticed that his parents were now sitting very close to each other, and he felt somewhat awkward, just sitting there, watching them. It was clearly a very intimate moment, and he suddenly felt as if he should leave.
"Number two, and it comes a very close second, I can tell you, is your smile. You light up the room whenever you smile."
Lily's eyes were shining; she looked as if she were going to cry with happiness. "I was so stupid for thinking badly of you, James." And she kissed him yet again, only adding to Harry's discomfort. But James pulled back, causing Lily to frown. "What's wrong?"
He lifted an eyebrow. "Don't you want to know number one?"
Lily laughed, as did Harry. "Yes, I do," she replied.
"Well, and this took only a second to realise, because it was the first thing I noticed about you; but number one on the top-ten-things-I-adore-about-you list are your eyes. Your gorgeous green eyes. I could get lost in them all day and never get bored."
Lily kissed her future husband on the nose. "James," she said.
"Yes?"
"I think I'm going to have to learn French."
"And why is that?"
"Because there aren't enough words in the English language to describe how perfect you are."
James laughed. "So, what are the top five things you adore about me?"
"I'm sorry; I don't have a top five."
He looked slightly dejected. "Oh, okay."
Lily playfully slapped him on the arm again. "You silly dolt! I don't have a top five because I can't put all the things I adore about you in order. I adore… I love the way your hair refuses to be tidy. I love your adorable grin. I love the way your glasses always end up crooked after we kiss."
She paused, and then with a lot of meaning in her voice, she looked right into his eyes and said; "I love you."
James's face had a look of pure and utter awe on it. He didn't speak.
"Did you hear me, James? I just told you I love you!"
"You said it first. You said it first!"
"So…?"
James jumped up from where he was sitting. "Sirius owes me 5 Galleons!
"What?"
"He said I would say it first, but I knewyou would!"
She looked at him incredulously. "You made a bet…with Sirius… about whether I would tell you I love you before you said it?!"
Harry couldn't believe how stupid his father was. James's grin faded, realizing his mistake, and he sat down next to her again, holding her hands in his. "Oh… I know it sounds bad, but…"
"James, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear any of what you just said, okay? And then I'm going to recreate the nice mood we had going before you destroyed it… okay?"
He nodded. "Okay."
"Now, where were we? Oh yes." She smiled at him. "James, I love you."
He grinned. "I love you too Lily. Merlin's beard, I can't even begin to tell you how much I love you. I've loved you since I first saw you at Platform 9 ¾ way back when I was eleven. I love you with all my heart and all my soul, Lily Evans; I always have, and I always will."
Lily smiled. "That's much better."
Harry smiled at his parents. They were now gazing at each other in a manner which blatantly showed they were head over heels in love with each other.
Harry had caught Ron gazing at Hermione in that exact same way several times this year.
"So what was the big thing you wanted to give me?"
"Oh, nothing really, just a snog."
She laughed. "Well, before you give that to me, I'd like to do something."
"And what would that be?"
She pulled her wand out of her pocket and said clearly: "sharpinus." The point of her wand suddenly turned a sliver colour, and somehow became rather pointy, almost like a lead pencil. Smiling at James, Lily began slowly etching the letter 'J' onto the bedpost.
James looked at her in wonder. "Vandalising school property? Who are you, and what have you done with my Lily?"
She laughed, but didn't say anything, just continued to carve their initials into the dark wood. Just as she had finished the 'E', Harry noticed someone was coming up the stairs. He looked at the doorway and found himself staring at his seventeen year old godfather. Sirius was wearing his school robes, but they looked slightly dishevelled, and on his face were several lipstick smears. His hair was messed up, and he appeared to be somewhat tipsy. The wave of sadness began to take hold again, just as Sirius pulled a flashbulb camera from behind his back.
"Say cheese, lovebirds!"
Lily and James hadn't noticed Sirius enter, so they quickly turned their heads to see him.
"Padfoot, what are you doing?"
"Seeing as it's the last day of school, I'm getting photos of everyone. And besides, you two need a photo together in the yearbook, so I can stick it into mine."
And before Lily or James could protest, the incredibly bright flash of the camera blinded Harry momentarily.
When he opened his eyes, his parents were no longer sitting opposite him. The room looked back to normal; the curtains around the beds looked older, and Harry could see Dean's West Ham posters again. He felt as if he had just been watching a film and someone had turned it off just when he had been getting into it. He would've loved to have seen Sirius and his parents interacting; he would've loved to have seen any form of Sirius again.
He swallowed, holding back those damn tears, and looked at Neville's bed. The two parcels were still sitting there, waiting to be opened. Harry walked over and tore open the paper on his package, and found that most of the package was still wrapped, this time carefully, and in brown paper. On top, a note, written with the familiar handwriting of Professor Lupin sat. Harry picked up the note and read it.
Dear Harry,
I know you won't receive this on Christmas morning, but I am hoping the owl makes it to Hogwarts by the evening.
As you know, I have assigned myself the task of clearing out Sirius's old room. I have been going through his things in doing so, and found something which I think you might like to keep.
I have enclosed a package for Neville; several pictures of his parents I also found.
Happy Christmas, Harry.
Keep safe, and send my greetings to Ron and Hermione.
Best wishes and kindest of regards,
Your friend,
R. J. Lupin.
Harry tore open the paper, eager to know what Lupin had found for him.
It was a red book with the title: "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - Graduating class of 1977."
It was a yearbook.
Sirius's yearbook.
He flipped through it, and sure enough came to a page where various moving photographs had been stuck in.
And there it was. Lily and James, sitting on James's bed, waving. In Lily's hand was a wand with a pointed end. And on James's bedpost were the initials J.P. L.E.
Harry smiled.
As much as he missed his godfather, and was terrified about the coming War, he couldn't help smiling.
A/N- Thank you all who are patiently enjoying Seventh Year Changes. I was inspired by the wonderful Polka Spots (whose one shots are absolutely gorgeous) to write a one-shot of my own. So here it is. Hope you like it, and please review. You know me. I love feedback.