Disclaimer: I'm not lucky enough to own Harry Potter & the gang—they all belong to the incomparable JK Rowling!
What happens when your boyfriend's 'spare bit of parchment' takes you and your arch-nemesis twenty years back in time? With the Marauders involved, things can get pretty interesting. ..
Mischief Managed—Chapter 14: Time and Chance
"I just don't get it Mooney," Sirius whined, "it should have been working ages ago—and all it does is shoot sparks at me."
"Well," Remus said coolly, raising an elegant eyebrow, "it's no fault of mine—for all I know, one of you two idiots has been tampering with it."
"Have not!" Sirius protested.
"How the bloody hell can you two sit here and argue about that stupid map when we've got a Death Eater with free reign in our school?"
"Stupid?" Sirius said with horror as Peter played with his tie nervously, "it's only the greatest invention in rule breaking history—future mischief makers will be able to annoy Filch for years to come."
"Yea, well there might not be a Hogwarts for them to prank if we allow the Dark Arts to flourish here."
"Give it a rest, James," Remus said firmly, "I know that you're still upset about Draco beating you in Quidditch but that doesn't mean that—"
"That," James said through clenched teeth, "Draco person is a Death Eater—he was trying to get Wormtail in on it last night, wasn't he Wormtail?"
Peter looked down at his uneaten porridge. "Yes," he said in a dead-sounding voice, "he tried to get me to join them."
"See!" James said triumphantly, "and Peter fought it—I'm proud of you Wormtail—gave him the old one two didn't you?"
"Right," Peter said meekly.
Remus rolled his eyes, "Bravo…let's be sure Wormtail gets a trophy for that one, now if James is done with his morning rant, let's try to get this map going."
Remus withdrew his wand, "Now, for the one hundredth time, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
A shower of red and gold sparks arose from the piece of parchment, flying everywhere, one hitting Frank Longbottom in the face.
"Wotcher guys," Frank said sternly, rubbing his Head Boy Badge.
"Sorry Frank," Remus said sheepishly. Frank was nice and all, but he was the size of James and Sirius put together with a Head Boy Badge to boot.
"Oi Remus," Sirius said softly, "what's up with Ginny?"
Remus turned around to see the redhead sitting alone, apparently lost in thoughts.
"She's probably a little perturbed that you and Genius here decided to go off on Draco for no reason."
"HE ATTACKED WORMTAIL!" James bellowed.
"Well," Remus said sullenly, "Wormtail doesn't seem to be half as upset about it as you are, perhaps he doesn't wish for you to be his protector."
"Don't be silly," James said bitterly, "of course he does."
Ginny sat quietly at her table, barely aware that the Marauders were staring at her like lost puppies. They just didn't understand. Draco wasn't the bad guy here—it was Peter—that rat was the reason Harry's parents are now dead—he betrayed them. Was she here to save them? How could she, when it was Lily's sacrifice that saved Harry. It wasn't fair that she should have all this responsibility, either way. She wanted to go home.
"Hey," Draco said uncertainly, lacking his customary drawl and sounding downright depressed, "May I sit here?"
She shrugged nonchalantly, "it's a free country."
He sat there sullenly, his arms crossed.
"Want to talk about it?" Ginny asked with caution, in case he was in a foul disposition.
"For once in my life," he began in a hollow voice, "I wanted to do something—good."
"I know Draco," she interrupted, "but we just can't—"
"Don't interrupt me," he snapped, "I realize that we can't give away everything, but don't you think that we could at least tell them about the rat—maybe they'd have a fighting chance then."
"Why do you care what happens to them?" Ginny said with surprise.
"What human being wouldn't, Weasley? I mean, what the hell do you take me for?" Draco said bitterly.
"You seem the type that wouldn't even care about your friends, let alone anybody else—especially Harry, truthfully."
"You don't even know me," Draco said coldly.
"Well," began Ginny, not wishing to continue that conversation, "since we seem to have done enough tampering around here, I say we get this map working."
Draco looked exasperated, "we've tried it a hundred times—we just need to accept that we're stuck here."
"Maybe Remus can help us," she said thoughtfully, half to herself, "of course, that would mean revealing that we have the map."
"Fine," Draco sighed under his breath, "If he's our only hope...God help us all." He didn't want to argue and possibly spoil the friendship they had developed.
Ginny looked anxiously behind them again, where the Marauders were getting up from the breakfast table.
"Come on Draco," she said quickly, "we've got to talk to them now."
"Can't wait," Draco rolled his eyes, still sore from James's punch the night before.
To Ginny's intense relief, Remus and his three friends remained alone as they strode off down the lawn toward the lake, where Lily Evans and Meghan Gibbs were studying. A group of students were lounging with their socks and shoes off, and Ginny had to laugh at Guilderoy Lockhart's moaning about overexposure to the sun. Sirius was making a giant show of doing handstands in front of Alsatia Dumbledore, who was trying to look politely amused, but quickly shoved something into his pocket when he noticed that Draco and Ginny had been trailing them.
"Hello," Ginny greeted them with a smile, hoping they had forgotten Draco and James's little tiff.
"Hello Ginny...Draco," James replied, Draco's accusations against Peter still clearly fresh on the Marauder's mind. James was mustering all the strength he had not to pummel Draco at that very moment.
Draco, however, seized the opportunity.
"So...have you thought anymore about what I've said, Potter?" Draco leaned casually against a yew tree.
"As a matter of fact I have," retorted James, closing in on Draco, "and my friends and I agree that you're a scummy, arrogant, lying, son of a—"
"Leave him alone, Potter, "Lily said with disgust as she joined the group, "Where is Peter anyway, I was supposed to help him with Charms."
"Dunno," said Sirius, obviously dumbfounded, "He was following us down here. Probably just a little slow, him being fat and all."
"Well, if it were me, I'd be looking for him," said Draco, as Lily and Ginny tried very hard to look offended at the rude comment Sirius had made, "I'd check with your cousin, Black. It is their meeting time after all."
"Relax Padfoot," James said silkily, restraining Sirius, "he's just trying to get under your skin."
"Do you want to die in five years or not?" Draco snapped at James, "answer that—do you?"
"Draco—" Ginny said warningly.
"Are you threatening me?" James said in a dangerously quiet voice.
"Get your head out of your ass for five minutes and listen to me, Potter!" Draco sneered. "Do you morons think that this is some kind of a game? That rat you're so chummy with is going to sell you all out."
"Are you mad? Wormtail?" James looked incredulous, "he's mental."
"Shut up Draco!" Ginny said sharply, "we can't tell them more than what they need to know."
"Who are you people?" Sirius looked panicky, "it's like you think you know the future or something."
"They are from the future," Remus said softly, "they're telling the truth."
"Oh don't tell me you buy into this rubbish, Mooney?" James said with a waver of confidence.
"I do," Remus said, staring at Ginny as if transfixed by her.
"Wait a moment," James said, comprehension dawning over him, "you called me something earlier—by the lake."
Draco chuckled slightly, "famous Harry Potter, perhaps?"
"Yes—so he's my—I have a little brother?"
"Actually," Ginny grinned, "he's your son."
"My son?"
"Yes."
"That's—wow—great I guess. He looks like me; I'm sure—and he plays Quidditch?"
"Actually he's the youngest Seeker in a century," Ginny laughed at James's wide open mouth.
"He isn't that great," Draco rolled his eyes.
"Well congratulations, Potter," Lily said dryly, "it sounds like you have the son you've always wanted—and who may I ask is the lucky lady?"
"Yea!" James's face lit up with interest.
Draco grinned evilly, "sorry Lily—you know you can always come home with me—then we could spare the world from the surplus of Potters."
Lily's jaw dropped, "I—marry—that!"
James smiled seductively, "you say that as if it's a bad thing,"
"My life is over!" Lily howled.
"So how do I look?" James asked happily, "I don't have grey hair do I?"
Draco and Ginny exchanged glances.
"We may as well be hanged for a dragon instead of an egg," Ginny said quietly.
"You don't have much hair nowadays, Potter," Draco said with somewhat of a sneer.
James touched his head protectively, "I—I—I'm bald?"
As Sirius began to roar with laughter, Ginny shook her head. "What he meant was that—you and Lily died fifteen years ago."
James grew silent and Lily went pale. "We—die?"
"What do you mean?" James said softly.
"You're dead, Potter, dead, six feet under, deceased, decaying—"
"Knock it off Draco, they get the point," Ginny said firmly.
"How?" Lily whispered.
"You were knocked off by the Dark Lord," Draco said matter-of-factly, "Dad told me he killed you both personally."
"The Dark Lord?" James repeated, "You mean—Voldemort?"
Lily began to sob on James's shoulder.
"I just wish there was something that we could do for him," Lily sighed, "since he never really gets to know us."
"Hey," Ginny said brightly, pulling her newly developed photographs out of her bookbag, "I took these for him."
"They are beautiful, Ginny," Lily said through tears as she shifted through the Halloween Ball photos.
"I look rather handsome," Sirius commented, "its no wonder the women want me."
Remus studied the group photo intently. "Peter isn't there," he declared after thorough study.
"Traitor," James said sullenly, pulling out a sheet of parchment from his notebook and writing a note on it in hasty scrawl. "Whenever you do go back, give this to Harry for me—do you want to say anything, Lil?"
"Of course," she said, taking the piece of parchment from him and writing her own hasty note.
"So how did my—our son—how did he escape?"
"He defeated Voldemort," Ginny said with a surge of hope, "—made him lose his powers and we were safe for ten years because of him."
James and Sirius whistled in appreciation.
"That's my boy," James said proudly.
"And he's stayed with me of course," Sirius said with a grin, "I taught him everything he knows I'd expect."
"God help the kid, if they were foolish enough to make you his godfather," Remus said sarcastically.
"Sirius—you didn't have it so great either I'm afraid," Ginny said, "Harry spent the first ten years of his life with his aunt and uncle."
"What?"
"My sister?" Lily said with horror, "but she is the worst sort of Muggle imaginable—it's a miracle Harry didn't go mad."
"Well, Peter betrayed you all—you made him your Secret Keeper, at the last minute and of course he told Voldemort."
"That bastard!" James said furiously, "Imagine, me—stuck down in my prime."
"Someone else went after him the night of your murder—and that rat faked his own death. Your friend went to Azkaban—and spent twelve years there. Harry's third year began, and he escaped."
A flicker of hope began to show on Sirius's white face.
"Harry now had two new connections to James and Lily, you Sirius, and Remus—but then, last summer, something terrible happened—the friend was lost—forever."
"Wait a tick," Sirius said in a quivering voice, "so this poor bastard spends twelve years locked up and escapes from the supposedly inescapable prison—and then dies!"
Ginny nodded grimly, as she stuck the photographs back into her backpack.
"Remus you poor old sot, give me a hug."
"It wasn't Remus," Ginny said with tears in her eyes.
"Me?" Sirius looked from Ginny to Draco, as if waiting for one of them to say 'April Fools'.
"That's so miserably unfair," he whined gloomily.
"Well at least you know," Draco said sagely, "at least you understand what kind of enemies you're dealing with now."
"That's it!" barked Sirius, "I'm putting a stop to this madness once and for all—I am not wasting away in Azkaban and dying because of that lousy excuse of a rodent."
He whipped out his wand, and the Marauder's Map, completely disregarding who was around or the fact it wasn't working properly.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"
Draco's eyes widened, "You stole our—"
Ginny quickly clasped her hand over Draco's mouth, comprehension dawning on her face. In an instant she had grabbed Harry's map with one hand, and seized Draco's wrist with the other. Gold and red sparks flew from both maps, and then Ginny and Draco felt the airy swirling sensation of time travel.