The marauders had realised just how different Harry was to them, he was quiet and considerate and appeared not to play pranks, although he had no objections to most of them. Most people hadn't realised that James wasn't around just thinking he had put a charm on himself to change his eye colour or he was being quieter because he was ill. It had been a full 24 hours since they last change over and Harry was still in 1977. Harry was sitting in the common room checking over the muggle studies essay for his dad. The others had gone off on one of their full moon excursions but Harry not being an animagus couldn't attend. So here he was alone in a time where he knew no one but everyone thought they knew him, he knew he was going to end up in trouble unless the switch back occurred soon.
Reading his essay through one last time Harry was alarmed how he was being studious, possibly for the first time in his life. Well, at least when it came to academic achievement and not life preserving. It was with great surprise that he heard his name being shouted.
"Potter?" he looked up into a pair of eyes just like his own He was looking at his mother for the first time he could remember.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, stop staring at me already". Harry looked down at his paper, tears forming in his eyes again. He couldn't do this.
"Sorry Lily" He mumbled head low into his parchment, he would not cry, his mum didn't know who she was and he couldn't tell her.
"We are on Lily now are we? What happened to good old Evans? Anyway we have that project to do for muggle studies on money, it has to be in on Friday and I am not going to fail for you, so I'm going to do it now and if you don't want to help I'll just go in for unequal splitting of the marks."
Shit, this was going to be hard but he couldn't push his mum away, he needed to know what she was like. Looking up he just said "sure". At least it was muggle studies..
"Don't need to sound too excited" The red head said sarcastically.
Ron persuaded James not to tell Hermione what he knew and definitely not tell anyone from the past. James was in no state to argue, his son was going to grow up not knowing his parents. No 15 year old should have to think about death, but for James it came as some kind of relief knowing that at least he had done the ultimate for his son, he protected him with his life. That wasn't the subject that was eating away at him; death was inevitable, life is always 100% fatal. What caused the true upset, the dull ache in his chest, were the results of a late night forage underneath the invisibility cloak. Desperate to find out more information on the subject James returned to the library alone and started to read the thickest book on the subject of Voldemort's downfall he could find. Its pure size must have scared most people off for its cover was covered in a rather thick layer of dust. This rather detailed account of the events of 1982 provided James with the worst paragraph he ever had to read in his life.
The confideus charm was placed on the Potter's residence and a secret keeper appointed, the chosen keeper was James Potters' school friend Sirius Black. Black betrayed the Potters and by alerting you-know-who to their hiding place at Godric's Hollow, Lancashire had caused their deaths, The day after the attack (1st Nov 1982) another of James Potters school friends, Peter Pettigrew, had been aware of the betrayal and sought Black, who killed him along with 13 muggles. The largest part of Pettigrew to be found was his finger; he was awarded the Order of Merlin (first class) after his murder. The Ministry of Magic caught Black at the scene and he was sentenced to life imprisonment at Azkaban prison.
With all this going through his head James was walking around in some kind of trance, totally unaware of his surroundings or Ron trying to get further reassurances out of him that he would not tell anyone what he had found out; past, present or future. James eventually collapsed on a chair in the great hall and blacked out. Harry, after a quick glance round, made eye contact with his best friend. "I'm back," he said simply. Ron looked at Harry and took him to one side, "We need to talk".
James found himself sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Lily Evans, he guessed he was back in his own time, but this time the swap had occurred without the sickness and dizziness usually accompanied with delayed concussion. To James it could be likened to changing a TV channel on a muggle set (maybe there was a chance of him passing Muggle Studies after all). He looked at Lily; within 5 years they would be married with a kid and within 6 both be dead thanks to the actions of his supposed best friend. That kind of image could seriously screw with your mind, maybe knowing the future was a curse and dropping divination was a wise thing to do after all. He diverted his attention from his future wife and looked down at the piece of paper in front of him, it was covered in awkward yet neat handwriting he presumed to be Harry's. "Describe the various forms of Muggle money in the UK", it struck him just how much Harry knew on the subject. Then it dawned on him, if Harry didn't live with his parents' maybe he had been brought up with muggles.
"Potter, what's up, you've stopped writing". James looked straight into her eyes, and Lily saw a sadness and panic in his deep hazel eyes she'd never seen before.
"If I told you, you would think I'm either mad or twisted." He looked back at his parchment and started writing, noticing the hand was totally different and unless he wanted to get done for plagiarism he would have to rewrite it all.
"Look Potter, first you stare at me like I'm a ghost and then you start blanking me. What's going on?" Lily was getting angry.
James started preparing the ground, if he knew how she felt about certain aspects of time travel maybe there would be a possibility of being able to tell her at least part of the story. "Do you believe in time travel?"
James looked at her hopefully; Lily just turned back to her parchment and said, "No, it's rubbish." He decided to leave it at that and start writing more on muggle money.
"You did what?" Harry couldn't believe it, his dad had found out, how the hell was he going to cope with the knowledge. He knew about his mum and their deaths and Voldemort. The only comfort Harry had was that he didn't know about Sirius and Wormtail or what he had done through his years at high school. At least his dad thought that Voldemort was dead and buried.
Harry looked at Ron, "What did you say, how did you break it to him?"
Ron returned the gaze, yet there was something about it which suggested he was ashamed of whichever way he had tackled the situation "I didn't know how to cope, so I did what I thought Hermione would have done and took him to the library to read a book on it."
"What! Didn't it cross your mind the book might go into a little more detail than the fact he died on the night Voldemort tried to kill me?" Ron looked confused; Harry decided to put him out of his misery, "Sirius, you twit".
Ron paled, "I'm sure it wouldn't have, when you found out in the Three Broomsticks didn't the professors say the secret keeper part wasn't well known?" Harry took comfort in this, hopefully his initial conclusion had been correct all along. "I suppose so, I wonder how he's taking it"
"He did seem a little out of it this morning, I just put it down to shock Seriously though, last night he looked like he was glad he was dead. Once he realised something was up he was scared that he was a bad dad and that's why there where no photos of him in your photo album. " Harry smiled at this, he knew he shouldn't but his dad cared, even his 15 year old self who had not actually got a son yet wanted to protect him.
Ron interrupted the moment, "You won't tell Hermione will you? She scares me when she's angry and for this she would pull out my rib cage and use it as a hat". Harry couldn't help but laugh.
"Your secret is safe with me"
The essay was finished, 5 rolls of parchment on varying types of muggle money. James felt inferior, Lily was muggle born so could write in depth on the subject and Harry obviously had some experience of the muggle world so contributed a fair bit, James' knowledge on the other hand ceased at knowing muggle money had the queen on one side but couldn't remember if it was Elizabeth II or Victoria on it. Lily didn't know about the switches yet had spotted the obvious change in the boy in front of her. His seemingly everyday knowledge of muggle money disappeared, replaced by struggling to get ideas to write. It was almost as if it was a different person. Lily approached the subject
"Are you OK? You seem withdrawn" Lily couldn't believe she was being civil to the stuck up shit she knew. Lily had been through these feelings herself, this is when you have found out someone had died, it would also figure out the random question about time travel before she so awkwardly avoided.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just got something on my mind" James mumbled, despite his assurances to Ron if he had got his hands on Sirius he couldn't say how he'd react. He knew he should do nothing, Sirius hadn't betrayed him yet and if the betrayal doesn't happen then Voldemort would never fall from power. On the other hand he was the reason his son was an orphan, the reason why him and his future wife were dead. James broke out of this thought and decided to go up to the dorms, with a bit of luck it might still be a full moon, that way he would have the dorm to himself and would not have to worry about pummelling the crap out of Sirius. "Anyways I'm going to get off now, laters" With that James picked up his parchment and left up to the boys dormitories leaving Lily alone.
Lily sat by the fire thinking about James. Something had upset him and she didn't know what. Gathering up her stuff she realised one essay there that didn't belong to her, it was the essay on transportation. Picking it up she noticed a note attached to the front, maybe it was spending too long with her sister, Petunia, that had done it but Lily was curious. She read the note and was shocked by what she saw, the note was written in the same handwriting James was using at the beginning of the night, not the scruffy one that replaced it. This note was odd, everything about it didn't add up, James was 15 how could he have a son who could write essays? And what did he mean when he was talking about 1997? Lily decided that she wanted answers and headed up to James dorm with the pretence of giving him the essay back. Knocking on the door before opening it Lily was surprised to see James all alone in his dorm, not surrounded by the self-christened Marauders who wear usually found tagging along with him or habiting this dorm. "I found this" She said, handing James the parchment,she decided on a direst tact, "Who's Harry?" James paled, she knew something but he didn't know how much. "Tell me, why does he call you dad". James couldn't care anymore. Did it matter if one girl thought he was mad? Maybe he should go the whole hog and tell her that Harry was her kid. James shook that idea from his head; that would just be plain cruel.
"Sit down Lily, I'll tell you but it's up to you weather you believe me or not". James said as Lily just nodded. He recited the story of him and his son from the future randomly swapping timelines, about how Harry didn't know his parents after they both were murdered when he was a baby. He decided to abstain from telling Lily she was his mother and definitely about Sirius. That would hurt too much to say, that would be admitting it and James quite liked the numb feeling at the moment. Lily just stood there, shocked.
James had adopted a tone of voice like he had just woken up, a very quiet mumble with no passion or conviction behind it. It sounded as if he was in a trance just spouting out information; James found it easier to recite if he didn't think about it, "I know you don't believe me, but it's the truth. Every now and then Harry and me will just swap places. You can tell, he has green eyes and a scar. He was the one who started the essay on money, then we just swapped, just as if you changed channel on one of those felltissions."
"Televisions" Lily corrected automatically. This was swimming through her mind, it was impossible but at the same time something definitely changed in James. What he was proposing was just plain crazy, she looked at him with pity in her gaze; whatever had gone on in the past few days had seriously screwed with his mind. "I think you should take some time off school and relax, I don't know what's happened but it isn't doing you any good. I'll keep this between you and me but promise me you'll talk to someone about whatever has happened. Something has obviously affected you because you know as well as I that what you have just said makes no sense".
James incoherently mumbled something under his breath; Lily took this as acceptance of her terms. "OK then, I'm going to get off. Night" Lily vacated the room, leaving James alone once again.
