Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or else I wouldn't be writing fan fiction would I?

Ugh, I'm sorry for not updating for forever. I've just been kind of busy but it feels good to be posting stuff again.

I can't believe how many people thought that was the end! I read it and I guess it kind of sounds like it...maybe not so much to me because I know how much is left. Anyway, they still have to get home! Don't forget that! Hehe, well, anyway, the next chapter is the last.

Chapter 7: Back to the future

The next day the group had a great time in Hogsmeade. Sirius was wearing a red tube top and a black leather mini. He was getting strange looks everywhere they went. Harry was ecstatic. He was ready to stay here for a while then he would be excited to go back to the future too, because he had something to look forward to. Meeting his parents. He was on good terms with his teenage parents so they wouldn't remember him as the kid they hated in their fourth year, when they saw him.

After Hogsmeade, Sirius, James, Remus, Harry, Ron, Lily, Hermione, and Mia went to the Great Hall for dinner and Hermione let Sirius change to normal clothes. Once they were finished, they all went up to the Gryffindor common room. Harry and Ron played Wizard chess, while the other boys cheered them on.

"Queen to E5," said Harry. Ron grinned.

"Bishop to C6," he said and Harry groaned. "Check and mate."

"My turn, my turn!" Sirius called and pushed Harry over. He set the pieces back up and he and Ron began to play. Harry got up from the floor, rubbing his arm. He stood next to James and Remus and watched Sirius lose.

"Anyone else want to try?" Ron asked.

"Not really, no," James said. "Let's play Gobstones."

"All right I'll go get some," said Remus and ran up the stairs. The girls were reading books and magazines, and talking about which dress robes they were going to order for the Halloween ball, which was next week. They hadn't found anything they liked in Hogsmeade that day.

Soon Remus came back down with the Gobstones set. He set it up, and invited James to come and play. James lost, and was soon covered in a disgusting liquid. Then Remus and Sirius played, and Remus joined James in watching the game while covered in a bad smelling substance. After a while, Harry was the only one not covered in anything disgusting, but Sirius solved that problem by conjuring a bucket of stinksap and dumping it all over Harry.

All smelly and disgusting, they walked over to the girls' corner and sat down next to them.

"Hey Hermione," Ron and Harry said, sitting down on either side of her. She screwed up her face.

"Ugh, what is that awful smell?" she asked. Harry pretended to look hurt.

"What? You don't like my new cologne?" The boys all laughed.

"No, not really," she answered smiling and pushed him away. James, Remus, Ron, Sirius, and Harry all went up to take showers, and when they came back they smelled a lot better. They sat back down where they were sitting earlier.

"So, what do you guys want to do tomorrow?" Lily asked, putting down her book. They had all finished their homework already.

"Dunno," James said. "There's no snow to have a snowball fight with, and we just went to Hogsmeade today."

"Let's go swimming!" Sirius said. Everyone stared at him.

"Sirius, it's the end of October. It'll be freezing!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Yeah, but its fun," Ron put in.

"What do you mean, when did you ever do it?" she asked him.

"Ron and I did it before the start of term, when we were staying in Hogsmeade," Harry told her.

"Oh, but that was August!"

"And it was still freezing but fun."

"Fine. Don't expect me to join you, though."

"Ok."

"Why don't we go now?" Remus said.

"Sure!" Ron answered "But then what do we do tomorrow?"

"We'll think of something. Let's go swimming now," James said, and the boys all took off through the portrait. Hermione, Lily, and Mia looked at each other and sped off to the boys' dorms. They got James' Invisibility Cloak and put it on. Then they crept out of the castle onto the grounds.

The boys were right in front of them, on the shoreline. They girls moved forward quietly and were about to push their friends in, when they turned around and pushed the invisible girls in instead, taking off the Cloak. The three girls fell in the water with a splash.

"Tsk, tsk," said James. "Stealing from me, Lily?" Lily got out of the freezing water quickly.

"Shut up, James."

"Aww, you're just sad because your plan backfired."

"How'd you know where we were?" Mia asked, getting out of the lake and helping Hermione out too.

"We have our ways," cackled Sirius, and the five boys disappeared under the Cloak. Of course, they had been using the Marauders Map.

"Hey! Where are you?" shouted Hermione, looking around nervously.

"Over heeeeeere!" came a ghostly voice near the Whomping Willow.

"No, over heeeeeere!" came another mystical voice from the other side of the grounds. Then suddenly Harry materialized in front of Hermione.

"No, actually, over here," he said and pushed her in again. Then he disappeared, but the girls could still hear the laughter. Hermione jumped out of the lake and dried herself.

"Harry Potter, I'm going to kill you!" she realized what she had said and clamped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late. The laughter stopped and the boys appeared a couple of feet in front of the girls. Lily and Mia stared at Hermione. Harry and Ron glared. "Sorry, it's just he looks so much like James, I said Potter instead of Portico." Hermione said lamely. The Marauders nodded, but still looked at her suspiciously.

"Let's go in," said Mia and the girls all ran off.

"That was weird," said Remus.

"Yeah…" James trailed off, staring at Harry who looked away nervously. "Let's go back in." They walked silently back to the castle, with James holding the Cloak. When they got into the common room, the Marauders upstairs to put the Cloak away, and talk, and Harry and Ron walked furiously over to Hermione.

"C'mon," said Harry harshly as he grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the tower. When they were in a classroom with a silencing charm on it, he let go of her. "Why did you say that?" he screamed. "Everything could have been ruined!"

"We could have gotten Dumbledore to modify their memories!" Hermione shouted back.

"He already did it once! He told me, and remember what Richard said? If they had figured it out, everything would be too complicated to fix! Dumbledore can only modify their memories once about this, because they might forget much more than just what they found out!" (A/n: Dumbledore didn't tell Harry that the Marauders wouldn't be able to figure it out again)

"I'm sorry! It was a mistake!" Hermione yelled, her eyes brimming with tears. "I didn't mean to!"

"You could have ruined it all, Hermione!" Ron told her. "We probably would have had to go back to when we arrived here, and then go back to the future! Harry wouldn't be friends with his parents, and he'd be swamped with the press! None of us would even know why because we wouldn't remember it yet!" he said. "Even if you didn't mean to, it's still your fault," he added quietly. He and Harry left the room and Hermione's tears fell

In the boys' dorm.

"That was weird!" James said, sitting down on his bed. "Harry does look a lot like me, but I don't think that's really why Hermione called him Harry Potter."

"Do you think, that maybe-" Remus began but suddenly his body gave a jerk.

"What, Moony?" James asked, but the same thing happened to him. Sirius followed.

"What were we talking about?" he asked afterwards.

"No idea," said Remus and they put the Cloak back and went to find their other friends. What had just happened was Dumbledore's spell. Anytime they got close to thinking that Harry and Ron and Hermione were from the future, they would automatically forget what made them think that and what they had just been thinking.

Harry and Ron came back through the portrait hole and flopped down on the couches. They knew Hermione hadn't meant to let it slip, but they were still angry at her.

"Hey, where's Hermione?" Lily asked.

"How should we know?" Harry snapped.

"It's not like we have to keep track of her all the time," Ron snarled. They were a dangerous pair when angered. Ron had the famous red-head temper (also known in the Weasleys as the Weasley temper), and Harry had inherited a short fuse from his mother, which also gave him a bit of the red-head temper.

"It's just you left with her," Lily said meekly.

"Well, we came back without her. Doesn't mean we know where she is," Harry growled. Lily started to get angry.

"All right! You don't have to be so rude," she said.

"I'll be rude if I want to," Harry replied.

"Well, I don't like it so, don't be rude to me!"

"Or what?" Ron asked, standing up.

"Yeah," Harry said, also getting to his feet. Lily got up too. "Or what?"

"I'll hex you into next week," she said. Then she slapped them both and stormed up to her room. Mia cast a worried glance at the two boys with red cheeks and hurried after her friend. Harry and Ron stood, shocked. Harry brought his hand up to his cheek gingerly and winced.

"Yeah," said James, trying to brighten the mood. "She does hit hard, huh?" Harry and Ron turned to glare at him before bursting out into laughter.

The boys being boys, thought it was all Lily's fault, of course, since she shouldn't have been annoying Harry and Ron by pestering them about Hermione, and the girls being girls, thought it was all Harry and Ron's fault since they shouldn't have been so rude. Now it was time for Hermione to make her appearance.

"Hey guys," she muttered miserably, lying down on her bed. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her cheeks were still a little bit wet. By the time she had come back, the boys had left the common room.

"What's wrong?" Lily and Mia asked, rushing over to Hermione's bed. Hermione told them what happened.

"They shouldn't have done that!" Lily whispered angrily. "Ugh, I hate Harry; he's just like James! Well, how James used to be." Hermione winced.

"Really, you shouldn't hate him; I did mess up."

"And Ron!" Lily screeched, ignoring Hermione. "He had no right to be like that either!"

"Well, they were right; I mean everything would have been ruined if the Marauders found out," Hermione protested.

"Don't defend them!" Lily told her friend. Mia was just standing there, uncertain about what to do. "They were the ones in the wrong! You made a mistake, and they go and yell at you for it!"

"But-"

"Oh no, you're not going to stick up for them. No, you're going to be mad at them."

"But I'm not, it was my fau-"

"No it wasn't!" Lily's eyes were glowing with anger and Hermione cowered against her bed.

"Ok," she said timidly. Lily kept on glaring. "Er- I hate them and I'm mad at them now?" Lily gave a satisfied nod, grabbed her pajamas, and went into the bathroom to change.

The next day, the Marauders ate at one end of the Gryffindor table and the girls ate at the other. Sam still burst out laughing whenever he looked at his past self, remembering the mini skirt and tube top, which meant he might start laughing his head off at a random moment, causing everyone to think he was insane.

In their first class of the day (Care of Magical Creatures), they had to work in pairs. Unfortunately, Professor Kettleburn was assigning the pairs. Of course, it was James and Lily, Sirius and Mia, Harry and Hermione, and Ron and Snape. (A/n: The last one's not an "of course" but there was an odd number of people there and I couldn't put Remus with Ron because they had to be bad pairs, right?). They were all currently working with nifflers (A/n: Please tell me if that's what they're called! I mean the animals that like shiny objects!), and halfway through the lesson disaster struck.

Snape was just about to throw out his wristwatch again, for the niffler to bring back, when he had a sudden idea. Ron was watching the other groups, since it was Snape's turn with the niffler, and not paying attention to his partner. Since the said partner was evil and nasty, he decided to throw the watch onto Ron's head. Professor Kettleburn was preparing food for the nifflers, away from the class. Ron felt something unusually heavy for a wristwatch land on his head, and for a moment he was dazed. That is, until he felt claws digging into his scalp. He clutched his head and tried to get the thing off but it wouldn't let go. Then he tried shaking his head violently but still, the creature remained. By this time everyone was looking at him, thinking he'd gone crazy, since they couldn't see the niffler (it was a small one) through his hair. Finally he began screaming at the pain.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggggg!" Snape was looking very pleased with himself. Lily and Mia and Hermione (along with almost the whole rest of the class; all of the Slytherins, though) began laughing. That is, until a small creature that looked a little like an ant-eater fell out of the brilliant red. He ran forward towards Severus Snape, clutching a slightly red-tinged watch.

"You put a niffler on his head?" James screamed, outraged.

"God Damnit, Snape!" Ron yelled. He was really dizzy, because of shaking his head around so much. He and all the Marauders and Harry leaped at Snape, knocking him to the ground. Professor Kettleburn returned and pulled the five strong boys off of the Slytherin, who was looking very bad right now. He had two black eyes, a cut lip, and bruises all over his face along with some other little injuries. He was sent to the Hospital Wing and Professor Kettleburn gave him and the other boys detention, for setting a niffler on someone (Snape) and fighting (Harry, Ron, and the Marauders). Then she dismissed the class.

"Ron, you ok?" Remus asked. "The watch had some blood on it." Ron reached up to touch his head.

"No, it's fine. There was just a little drop."

"Ok," said Remus. Harry grinned.

"That was kinda fun! We got to attack a teacher! Well, a younger version of our teacher, but still." Ron grinned too.

"That was awesome," he said.

After lunch they had transfiguration (they were learning more about animagi and the Marauders, Harry, Ron, and Hermione got twenty points apiece). All six of them walked off feeling very pleased with themselves, since they had just earned one hundred and twenty points for Gryffindor. That night there was a party in the tower (it was very rare for anyone to earn that much in one day) and then it was time for bed.
Over the next week, the girls and boys were still not talking to each other, and it was driving them all insane, especially since the ball was tomorrow and Mia was going with Sirius, Lily was going with James, and Ron was going with Hermione. Remus and Harry were taking some girls from Ravenclaw

Finally, one night in the Gryffindor common room, they were the only people left. Ron was the first one to speak.

"Listen, Hermione, and Lily, I'm really sorry about being so rude and harsh to you. I was in a bad mood."

"Me too. We really shouldn't have lost it like that," added Harry. Hermione and Lily nodded.

"We're sorry too." Hermione said.

"Wait, you didn't do anything, Sirius pointed out.

"Oh yeah," said Hermione, looking at Ron and Harry. They knew she was apologizing for her mistake.

"It really was an honest mistake, Hermione," said Ron, after he and Harry and Hermione were packing up. The others had gone to bed. "We're sorry about it." Hermione smiled.

"I know," she said, "its ok. Let's go to bed." They all walked up the stairs to their dormitories, and soon all three were fast asleep.

The next afternoon, the girls were locked up in their dormitory, getting ready for the ball. The boys were playing Quidditch, and since it was raining they were soaking wet and muddy. At 7:45, they decided to get ready, since the ball was starting in fifteen minutes. They ran into the common room, and some couples who were leaving stared at them.

"You're not going like that are you?" a girl asked. Sirius made a very rude gesture involving his middle finger and ran up the stairs with his friends behind him. In five minutes, they had all taken showers and gotten dressed. Harry was wearing forest-green dress robes that brought out his eyes. James was in midnight-blue robes, and Sirius was in red. Remus was in plain black. Once they were ready, Harry and Remus flew off to the Ravenclaw common room (their dates had told them where it was) without waiting for Lily, Mia, and Hermione.

All three of the girls had decided against robes.

Hermione came down first. She was wearing a midnight-blue (like James'), silky dress, down to the floor. Her hair was wavy, and she had a little bit of blue make-up on. Her shoes had two-inch heels (she had been practicing wearing them for a while since she didn't normally wear heels) and were the same color as her dress. She had gloves on, also the same blue as her clothes. She looked beautiful. Ron and a lot of other people were staring at her, and she blushed at all the attention she was getting.

Mia came down next. She had on a black dress, with dark blue make-up, like Hermione's. She was wearing gloves as well, and had loopy earrings on. Her hair was in a ponytail and wisps of it came down on either side of her face. Her shoes were black, strappy sandals, on a three-inch heel.

Then it was Lily's turn. She had an emerald green dress, with no back, and pale green make-up. Her hair was in a bun, and she was carrying a little purse. She had green bracelets and earrings on. Her shoes were the same color green, also with three-inch heels. They all looked amazing, and their dates were getting a lot of jealous looks.

They met Harry and Remus in the Great Hall. Harry's date, Stephanie, was in a pink dress with loads of make-up on. She looked very good too, despite the amount of make-up. Stephanie had blond hair, and blue eyes.

Remus' date, Jackie, was a girl he had liked for a long time. She had black hair and dark brown eyes. She was in black dress robes with black make-up. She was going for the gothic look and it suited her.

Everyone had a great time and danced a lot. Remus and Jackie were a couple by the end of the night, and so were Sirius and Mia. Sirius promised her he wouldn't just use her for a couple of days, and then dump her, so she had agreed. Later, Sam had told Hermione, Ron, and Harry that it was true, and they had gone out for the whole year. Then they had an on and off relationship which ended in the off mode, in the middle of seventh year. The reason they had ended, however, was because a Death Eater attack had killed her parents. She had gone home for the funeral and they had gotten her too. Sam almost started crying, telling the story, and had had to leave the room.

The ball had ended early because someone (coughthemaraudersHarryandRoncough) had spiked the punch. Then they drank it, and passed out cold. Their dates were left to bring them back to the common room, except for Stephanie and Jackie because Lily, Mia, and Hermione had promised to levitate Harry and Remus back. Harry, Remus, Ron, James, and Sirius had had an exceptionally good time, because they had the most punch.

The girls didn't want to go to bed yet (it was eleven) so they crept up to the boys' dormitories to find something interesting. They found a couple of bottles of firewisky. Lily, Mia, and Hermione weren't the type of girls to get drunk when they were fourteen, but they decided to give it a go. The next morning found them all waking up on their boyfriends, with massive hangovers.

It was a Saturday, and a Hogsmeade weekend, but the trio from the future hadn't wanted to go. Remus, James, Sirius, Lily, and Mia had left them after trying to make them go all morning. Sam and Richard were up in the boys' dormitories, where Hermione was sitting with Harry and Ron. They were all talking when they heard a tap and an irritable hoot from the window. Harry opened it, and a half-black half-white owl flew in, with a letter tied to its leg. Once it had been removed, the owl stretched its wings and soared outside.

The five of them knew what this letter was; it was their ticket home.

"We should open it later; after we've said goodbye," Sam said.

"Yeah," agreed the others. They wandered around the school trying to find Crookshanks for an hour, before Sam remembered the cat liked him in his animagus form and transformed. They finally found the ginger cat, and went to the owlery to get Hedwig and Pig.

After that, Sam and Richard helped Ron and Harry pack up their things (Hermione had decided to do it herself), and once Hermione had brought her luggage in the boys' dorm, they went to Dumbledore's office. When they knocked and were told to enter, they did so. They sat down in the comfortable chairs in front of the headmaster's desk.

"Professor," Harry said. "We got your letter." He showed Dumbledore the letter. The old man smiled.

"I see. And you are here to tell me that you are going?"

"Yes, but we want to wait for our friends," Hermione said.

"I suggest going to find them now, in Hogsmeade. That way they won't be able to catch you leaving," Dumbledore said.

"Yes, you're right," Richard said.

"I must say, I am sad to see you go." The group nodded and stood up. "I have a replacement teacher, so don't worry about that," Dumbledore added, when he saw Richard open his mouth to speak. Richard smiled. He and the others turned around to go, but stopped when Dumbledore said something else. "Miss Granger?" She turned around.

"Yes?"

"Please take care of the fact that the girls know of your true identities?" No one except Remus and Hermione understood that.

"Yes sir."

"Goodbye," said Dumbledore.

"'Bye!" They all chorused, and headed out to Hogsmeade.

They found Sirius, James, Remus, Mia, and Lily in the Three Broomsticks.

"You have to go?" Lily asked. "No, stay!"

"Sorry, Lily, we have to go home," Harry said with a meaningful look. She and Mia understood.

"Oh, I understand, I guess. I wish we could still keep in touch, though I know that's impossible."

"Only time will tell," Hermione said, smiling. Lily and Mia smiled.

"I agree," they both said. The Marauders were sad that they would lose their pranking friends, but Harry and Ron told them they might see each other again in a couple of years. Finally, Hermione cast a spell on Lily and Mia, which went unnoticed by everyone except those from the future.

"'Bye!" everyone called to each other, and Hermione, Harry, and Ron walked out of the Three Broomsticks to where Sam and Richard were waiting.

"Ready to go?" Richard asked. They nodded, and set off towards the castle.

"Hey, Hermione?" Ron said.

"Yeah?"

"What spell did you cast on Lily and Mia?"

"Oh, it was just a spell so they wouldn't forget us, but they'd forget or ignore the fact that Harry is James' son, and that he looks like him a lot, and that stuff. So they don't do things, like Lily marrying James for instance, just because they know it has to happen. Do you understand?"

"Yup." In almost no time they reached the oak doors. The group of five made their way to the portrait of the Fat Lady, and when she let them in, they trudged up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

"We should get in our previous positions," said Remus, and they all tried to remember what position they had been in when they had received the first note. In the end, Ron was kneeling near his trunk, Harry was sitting on his bed touching all the things he needed to bring back, Remus was standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, Hermione was standing near Sirius, who was lying on Ron's bed. When they had all shouted "Ready!" Sirius opened the envelope.

"It's time to go." was all it said. Suddenly the room began shaking. Hermione was thrown onto Sirius again, Ron was thrown onto his trunk, and the animals were all making protesting noises. Then it was all back to normal, and they all stood up. On the calendar was the right date, and the trunks near the beds read: Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Neville Longbottom. They were back.