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Three cheers for Ms Rowling!!!

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"I need to be at that meeting."

"Don't be stupid you need to stay in bed."

"Don't be a git Ron, I need to get out of here. You need to do something to distract the healers so I can jump ship."

"What? Now?"

"No, when George gets back. He's coming with me. I might need someone to help me get into Dumbledore's office. Give me those clothes."

Ron reluctantly handed over the jeans, jumper and trainers he'd brought at Fred's request. Fred snatched them up, jumped down from the hospital bed, and began to unabashedly strip off his pyjamas.

"Do you mind?" said Ron in disgust, turning his back.

"Nuh," said Fred, pulling on his jeans.

"You shouldn't be going," Ron insisted, "you might faint again. They still haven't figured out what's wrong with you."

"I know what happened," said Fred, tying the laces on his trainers as Ron turned back to face him. "That's why I need to see Dumbledore. Maybe he can fix this mess. James and Sirius are useless."

"If you know what happened why won't you tell us?!" Ron demanded, his voice reaching dangerous volumes.

"Keep your hair on," said Fred, signaling to Ron with his hand to lower his voice.

Ron looked as though he might have said something else, but George chose that moment to come pelting back into the room.

"I held them off as long as I could, they're on their way, coming in to see you, you're dressed, excellent, we have to go now!" He said all of this in a rush, grabbing Fred by the collar and dragging him from the room as he spoke.

Ron followed with a 'what am I getting myself into this time' groan.

The 'them' George had been referring to were Molly, Charlie and Percy. Molly, satisfied that Fred was on his way to healing, had finally allowed Ron and Percy to come visit their brother. The twins had managed to get a message to Ron before he came though, through the use of a very handy 'No Need to Pass the Note' quill they had been working on for 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'. The message had been to bring Fred some clothes and his wand.

Ron had hidden the items in his 'Bigger in Than Out' bag and had waited until George had distracted the rest of the family with a trip to the cafeteria before asking Fred why he needed clothes while stuck in hospital.

He had then been informed that Fred's desire for clothing had risen from his discovery that Sirius and James had been summoned from the hospital by Dumbledore for a meeting devoted to discussing Fred's condition.

Fred himself had not been invited. Ron supposed he was considered too sick to be grilled over his illness just yet. He certainly didn't look well. He was pale and appeared exhausted or drained.

Despite this, and the fact that Molly had explicitly refused to allow him to leave the hospital. Fred seemed quite determined to attend the meeting.

Now the three boys were walking, as fast as they dared while trying not to attract attention to themselves, in the direction of the St Mungo's floo networked fireplaces.

Fred grabbed Ron and spoke to him in a low voice, "Alright Ron here's the deal. It's gonna take us a bit to get to Hogwarts."

"We need you to distract the healers," said George.

"The patients," said Fred.

"The security," said George

"The visitors," said Fred.

"The house elves," said George.

"The portraits," said Fred.

"But most importantly," said George.

"Mum," they said together.

"She can't be able to come after us before we've reached the school."

"She must not be given even an almost imagined chance to wonder where we are," said Fred.

"She'd drag us back before we even got to Hogsmeade," said George.

"It would mean the continuation of the world as we know it," said Fred cryptically.

This last comment earned Fred an odd look from George.

Ron however was already stressing over how he should create his distraction. Excessive yelling was his usual method of getting people's attention. He began to look around for a potential target to vent on. Who would be his unwitting acomplis and help him create an attention drawing, ear splitting argument such as St Mungos had never seen.

There she was, over by reception .

George, who had been watching his younger brother consider the situation, followed his gaze to the frizzy haired young witch.

"Hey isn't that…?"

"You guys go I've got this covered,"

Ron strolled over to his classmate with a slightly evil glint in his eye.

"Hey!" he shouted as he went, "SPEW!"

The twins didn't hang around to hear the rest.

……………………………………………………………………….

Sirius waited alone in Dumbledore's office. The headmaster had gone off with Filch to sort out some issue with a cursed bottle of fire whiskey, leaving Sirius alone to wonder how James was faring with Lily.

When the two Marauders had been called to this meeting concerning the meaning and implication of Fred's illness, James had immediately said he'd wanted to bring Lily, prompting Dumbledore to raise his brows in surprise.

Sirius had subtly signaled the old man not to ask questions. Dumbledore, taking the hint from his former student, had simply allowed James leave to find his ex-girlfriend without asking any difficult questions.

James had apparated away looking, to Sirius at least, very unsure of himself and Sirius had followed Dumbledore back to Hogwarts, an uneasy feeling growing in his stomach.

Sirius could not pretend to understand James's reasons for wanting to bring Lily back into this mess. He had given up his dreams in order to spare her from it and it just didn't make sense for James to bring her back into the issue after working so hard for fifteen years to keep her at a distance.

What Sirius did understand was that James was beginning to wonder if he had made the right choice all those years ago, pushing Lily away. He was wavering. The shock of discovering that he may have inadvertently caused the deaths of some of his closest friends had shaken James to his foundation.

The problem was that James was a person who liked to see the world in black and white. Right and wrong. Once he decided that something was the right thing to do, he did it without fear. But now, for the second time in his life, James was faced with a situation where he could not decipher right from wrong. He'd formed some kind of notion in his head that to lessen the evil that had come from his decision to leave Lily, he needed to be honest with her after all this time, and had acted accordingly. But even as his friend had apparated away, Sirius had seen James's resolve flounder.

Sirius pitied James his clear cut morality. It made hard decisions that much more difficult to bear. It made the hatred he had received from Lily over the years that much more difficult to face.

Sirius's own feelings on the matter were confused and contradictory. He had spent the last few hours completely focused on James and what James might be feeling, in part to keep himself from examining his own reaction to Fred's horrifying revelations.

Sitting alone with his thoughts, he was now fighting to keep his mind away from the turmoil he knew would result from closer reflection on his emotions. He could feel his grief for Remus tugging at him was and desperately trying to turn his mind away from the image of his lost friend lying naked and scratched on the floor of the shrieking shack after a full moon. It was the image that had come close to destroying Sirius after he had learned of his friend's death. It reminded him of how vulnerable Remus had been at times, despite the strength of the wolf, and of how Sirius had failed to protect him.

Sirius hoped Dumbledore would be distracted with Filch for a long while. The last thing he wanted to do right now was examine the situation too closely, and he knew the headmaster was about to make him remember all the terrible things that had come out of Fred and Harry's accidental trip back in time.

The door creaked slowly inwards and Sirius waited apprehensively for the headmaster to appear. After what seemed like an eternity though it was not Dumbledore but James who entered the room, alone.

He did not meet Sirius's eye.

"Where is she?"

James sat in the chair closest to Sirius and gazed at his hands.

"I couldn't do it. I couldn't tell her." He brought his hand up to his brow as if his neck was not quite strong enough to support his head. "What did I do to her Sirius?"

Sirius couldn't answer. He didn't know how.

"I mean how could I have hurt her that much? It was exactly what she thought I would do too. You know, before we started going out."

Sirius, still lurching his mind away from the disturbing image if Remus, took a moment to comprehend what James had said. When he finally did understand though he felt something unexpected rise within him. Anger.

"James get a grip!" he said, "Worse things came out of this than the death of your teenage romance!"

James stiffened, and immediately Sirius felt contrite.

"Sorry," said James.

Sirius just looked at the floor.

At that moment the door to the office was flung open so hard it crashed against the bookcase behind it and several old tomes fell to floor in a jumble.

Sirius and James both stared.

It was Fred Weasley who had done the flinging and he was standing in the doorway, red faced and puffing.

He quickly checked behind him as though he thought he may have been followed, then nodding cordially to James and Sirius, closed the door quietly behind himself and took a seat by them, his manner now suggesting that he had been expected.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Sirius demanded, after sharing an exasperated look with James. They should have expected this.

"I can't very well let you have a meeting about me without being here to fill in the details for you now can I," said Fred, "Where's Dumbledore anyway?"

"Off sorting out whatever distraction you put in place to get Filch out of the way so you sneak in here I suspect," said Sirius. "Don't worry he'll be back soon."

Fred nodded.

Five minutes went by in silence before the door opened again, this time to reveal Dumbledore.

The headmaster nodded to himself as he noted Fred's presence, a slight smile gracing his features.

Then he was all business.

"We have much to discuss."

…………………………………………………………………

Hi All!

Hope you all liked the Weasley brothers in this one. I really like writing for them.

The time paradox will be examined in the next chapter, be prepared for it to be dry and lecturey. Well not too dry.

Just to answer a few questions that came up in reviews:

-Lily doesn't have a son.
-James might tell Lily about Harry or he might not. Not giving it away yet. -Things may never get back to normal. You'll have to wait and see.
-The time turner can of course be used again. Anyone who has read my earlier responses to reviews should know that one of the marauders is going to be sent back in time at some stage.
-The mess is very is very messy, it might be hard to solve.
-Harry will not be born in this version of things. His window was kind of missed.
-'Bludge subject' means 'subject you choose to do because it won't be much work and you're lazy'. (Is that really an Aussieism? Templa, you've experienced Australia, help me out here)
-I'm writing this under the assumption that the prophesy was made before the point Harry and Fred arrived at when they accidentally went back in time. This means that the prophesy had to have been told in both versions of history, despite the lack of Harry's presence in one of them, because it was told before the timelines got split.
-I sincerely hope I will not be thrown off a cliff.

That's all for now folks.

Cheers,

Whiskey.