"What?" Harry exclaimed as he and Hermione ran over to where Ron was standing.
They gasped at the sight that beheld them there. Sirius, so pale he looked dead, supporting Lily in his arms, James holding onto Remus, struggling to stay standing, and Miranda looking like she was about to retch, clutching Remus' unoccupied hand.
"Is…is it true?" Sirius managed to choke out.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded, somberly and moved back from the door so they could come in.
"How much did you hear?" Hermione asked, gently.
"Staring with Harry saying that Li—that his parents were murdered and he's an orphan." Remus replied. "That can't be true, can it?" He added, his voice carrying a tinge of desperate hope.
"It's…it's true." Harry responded, subdued, walking back to his bed as if in a daze. He sat down hard and put his head in his hands.
"Why don't you come sit down?" Hermione added, her voice shaky.
"Lil, can you walk?" Sirius asked softly to Lily.
"Y-yes." Lily replied halfheartedly. "I'm—I'm fine."
Sirius helped her to stand upright once more and they walked together into the room. Lily pushed Sirius away and sat down next to Harry. Sirius dropped down onto Ron's bed, right across from her; a deadened look in his eyes. James, finally regaining his mobility, came in and sat down on the other side of Harry. Remus and Miranda sat down on the floor with their backs to Ron's bed. Hermione and Ron sat down on the floor facing everyone. Ron looked slightly cross, Hermione anxious, fidgeting.
James put a hand on Harry's back. "Harry, I…I'm sorry."
Harry jerked his head up and looked at James with surprise. "But you didn't do anything!"
Lily ran a hand though Harry's messy black hair. "Maybe if I…maybe if I'd been…I don't know…a better mother or something…"
Harry's eyes widened and he turned all his attention on Lily. "No! Don't think like that, please. You saved my life."
"I did?"
"Yeah." Harry sighed. "I want to tell you the whole story but…well, I reckon I've said too much already. I just—I don't want anything worse to happen."
"Harry, if you tell us, maybe we could change it." Sirius said persuasively.
Harry shook his head violently. He had wanted to tell them so badly, and now that he had seen their faces, confronted with such a dismal future, he would have given anything to take it all back, to see them grinning, and joking, and happy.
"That's just it!" Harry burst out, overcome by emotions. "If everything was changed, I'd get back my parents, which I've wanted my whole life! But there's so much more to it!"
"Like what?" Lily asked, and Harry found her voice was soothing, maternal, even in her young age.
"Do you know who Voldemort is?"
"Of course we do."
"The whole wizarding world does." Miranda added.
Harry nearly jumped, startled to hear her unfamiliar voice once again. He looked at her askance, trying to place her, but looked away just as quickly, his mind coming up blank. Who is she? He wondered. He recognized everyone else…why not her?
"Wait, is that how I died?" James inquired, his voice rough and raspy. "I mean, er, am going to die? He killed me?"
Harry looked down at his bed, not wanting to meet his father's—or future father—eyes. "Yeah. He was after you and…Lily. Dumbledore found a charm to hide you, the Fidelius Charm…"
"Huh?"
"It's a charm which involves the concealment of a secret inside a living person. The secret is safe unless the person—the Secret-Keeper—chooses to divulge it." Lily explained. "I'm guessing we were going to use it to hide our whereabouts?"
"But the Secret-Keeper told Voldemort where Prongs and Lily were." Sirius deduced.
"Yeah." Harry responded, sadly. "Voldemort came to the house and James told Lily to take me and leave, that he would hold Voldemort off to give us a chance to escape. But Voldemort killed James and told Lily to stand aside. He told her that she could go free because he only wanted me. Lily refused."
"Sounds like her." James spoke up. "No one can tell Lily Evans what to do."
Lily gave him a weak smile. "That's right."
"So what happened next?" Sirius jumped in, having a perverse fascination in gruesome stories. It was like watching a good Apparation splinching.
"When Lily refused, several times, telling him to take her instead of me, he killed her, with Avada Kedarva, the way he killed James. Then he tried to use it on me, but it didn't work."
"But that's impossible!" Remus exclaimed. "There's no countercurse for it!"
"I know that. No one really knows why. Dumbeldore says it's because Lily died for me that the curse failed when Voldemort tried to use it on me. It rebounded on him, almost destroying him, and all I was left with was this scar." Harry pointed to the lightning shaped scar on his forehead.
"He's famous for it." Ron added. "All through the wizarding world. He's even in books and stuff."
"I knew that was a curse scar!" Lily exclaimed triumphantly, but her excitement at being right was quickly stifled by her realization as to the horror of the situation.
"So Lily sacrificing herself saved you from the Killing Curse?" Miranda asked skeptically. "How come we've never read about this kind of protection in Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
"Dumbledore said it's because no one else had ever done it before." Hermione clarified matter-of-factly. "It's some kind of ancient magic."
"It makes sense…sort of." James responded. "One soul swapped selflessly for another…fits that concept of equity in magic that Merrythought was talking about last week."
"Well than, congrats, Lily, looks like my best friend is the only person to save anyone from the Killing Curse." Miranda said, smiling slightly at Lily. "You deserve a medal or something."
"Or a monetary prize, which is always nice." Sirius joked.
Lily frowned. "I don't see how that would help me being dead and all." She responded, glumly.
"Uh-uh, not necessarily." Sirius cautioned. "Don't be so quick to assume the worst, Lily. It's like how you always think you're gonna fail every test and end up trumping everyone else."
"I don't see what this has to do with exams." Lily said flatly.
"Everything!" Sirius responded. "If you use your enormous brain for good, positive things, maybe you can beat all this. Defy death and all."
"That's…crazy."
"So crazy it might work…" James mused.
"See!"
"No!" Hermione cut in, apprehensively. "No, you can't try and change things! It's too dangerous…it's not a game."
Sirius stared hard at her for a full ten seconds before responding. "Let's get something straight, right now." Sirius said gruffly; his barely controlled anger could be heard in his acidic tone of voice. "This involves the deaths of my best friends. It is anything but a game to me, understand?"
Hermione, eyes wide, nodded, cowed by his fierceness.
Sirius looked at Harry straight in the face. "Now then, I'm guessing the reason you didn't want to tell us this, and the reason your friends have tried to prevent us learning all this is because if we stopped Voldemort from killing Prongs and Lily, then he might never have been destroyed, and more people would die?"
Harry nodded. "Exactly."
All eight people in the room fell into silence. James and Lily were contemplating their own mortality. Sirius, Remus, and Miranda were also contemplating James and Lily's mortality, while also wondering what they would do if their best friends died, and if there was any way to help them avoid such a grisly fate. Harry turned around on his bed so he could look at his parents. Ron and Hermione looked at each other, but said nothing. Hermione appeared to still be a little shaken from Sirius' reproach. Finally the silence was broken, by James pulling Lily into a hug.
"See Lily, you were a good mother." James told her.
Lily broke down in James' arms, crying into his robes. Sirius looked away when he saw the tears well in James' eyes as well. He had never seen his best friend cry, and felt it was wrong to look upon him now.
James squeezed Lily tightly against his chest, and choking back a sob, he spoke to her. "I must say, if I ever had to die young I'm glad I got the chance to marry you first."
Lily looked up at him, still silently crying, tears streaming down her face. "You really mean that?"
"Of course I do."
"Aw!" Sirius, Remus, and Miranda said in unison.
"Harry you were born in 1980, right?" Lily asked suddenly, breaking apart from James.
"Yeah." Harry replied, startled at her abruptness.
"How old were you when Voldemort killed us?"
Harry raised his eyebrows at her odd question, but answered anyway. "One."
"One?" Lily's face fell. "So James and I were only twenty-two." She, James, Sirius, Remus, and Miranda looked very startled by this fact. "That's only what—five years from our time?" Lily continued. "Guess I never get to see your hair gray, James."
"That's what you're waiting for?" James replied in disbelief.
Lily gave him a roguish grin. "Nah, I just thought it would be funny to see you old and with gray hair. Maybe lounging back in a rocking chair, complaining about—"
"I can't believe I marry you." James interrupted, rolling his eyes.
"Aw, you know you love me."
"I think that statement he made a few minutes ago shows that." Miranda chimed in, softly.
"Honestly, you two can tease each other even in the most solemn of situations." Sirius remarked, shaking his head.
"Look who's talking!" James exclaimed.
Lily pulled herself free of James' embrace and awkwardly held her arms out to Harry. "I guess you don't really remember any hugs from me, do you?"
Harry shook his head.
"She's a good hugger, I assure you." James added.
Lily glared at him. "You're ruining the moment, James."
"Just both of you shut up and hug your son!" Sirius cried out, exasperated. "Enough of this melodrama!"
Lily and James glared at him for an instant, before they both swept Harry into a hug.
"Oh dear!" Hermione burst out. Everyone turned to stare at her, surprised. "It's almost time for Defense Against the Dark Arts!" She continued, a bit sheepishly.
"How can you think of lessons at a time like this?" Ron exclaimed, looking at her, thunderstruck.
Lily drew back from Harry, and cleared her throat for attention. "I am going to have to side with Hermione. I don't want my son—er, future son—to skip his classes." She said adamantly.
"But—" Harry began, before James weighed in on the topic.
"I'm actually going to agree with Lily on this one—" James started.
"There's a first." Sirius quipped.
"We agree on some things!" Lily protested.
"Puh-lease. You two can't even agree on the color of Miranda's dress robes."
"They're mauve!" Lily stated.
"No, they're lilac!" James disagreed.
"Both of you shut up." Miranda said brashly. "Mauve and lilac are the same color! Otherwise known as purple!" Miranda threw her hands in the air in exasperation.
"And violet." James added.
"Or lavender." Lily said at the same time.
Miranda, Sirius, and Remus rolled their eyes.
"You two are perfect for each other." Miranda commented, shaking her head. "You're both mental."
Lily rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Because you're the epitome of sanity, Miss-Let's Break-into-the—"
"Don't you dare!" Miranda shrieked, drowning out the rest of her words. "You promised you wouldn't tell!"
Lily grinned mischievously. "Sometimes blackmail takes precedence over promises."
Sirius snorted. "That's always been my motto."
"I thought your motto was 'it's only illegal if you get caught.'"
"No, it's 'if the teachers accuse, always challenge them to show you the evidence'." Remus disagreed.
"I could have sworn you said your motto was 'it's not cheating if the girls are in different houses…or years.'" Miranda countered, with a grin.
Sirius glared at them all. "I am a man of many mottos, OK?"
"Ahem," James said loudly, bringing all of the attention back to him. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted—hint, hint, Padfoot—Harry, Hermione, and Ron need to go to their class. Besides, I was always the best in Defense Against the Dark Arts." James boasted.
"Only the practical." Lily countered, smirking. "I always beat you soundly on theory."
"Yes, because theory will save you when you're actually confronted by a Death Eater."
"I'm sure it'll get me much farther on my entrance exams for a job."
James shrugged. "I still say it won't help you anyto chatter on to a Dementor about the theory behind a Patronous Charm instead of actually performing one." He replied smugly. Lily frowned at him, looking affronted.
"Wait! Are you going to come to class, too?" Harry asked excitedly. He just met his parents; he didn't want to part from them yet.
"Of course." James replied simply. "The charm Lily cast last night is still up. It'll be fun." With a sudden burst of energy, James hopped off of the bed, ran around to the other side, hauled Lily to her feet, then scooped her up into his arms. Her disgruntled expression vanished, repleaced in its stead by a bright smile.
She laughed. "James, put me down!"
"Not until we reach class." James responded, grinning.
"I wasn't the only one who interrupted." Sirius grumbled.
"Aw, Pads, you're confusing me with someone who cares." James tossed over her shoulder.
Sirius glared at him. "I don't know why I'm friends with you, sometimes."
"Because I'm awesome." James responded. "And you aspire to be like me."
Sirius snorted derisively. "You wish, Prongs!"
James only laughed as he carried Lily out of the dormitory.
Sirius crossed his arms over his chest, looking put-out. "Why does it always feel like 'Pick On Sirius Day'?"
Miranda smirked at him, eyes glinting impishly, as she clapped him on the back. "Because it always is."
Sirius turned away sulkily. "I should have known better than to try and get sympathy from you all! I had forgotten that none of you had hearts..."
"And you told Lily and James to cut out the melodrama?" Miranda teased, to which Sirius only grumbled incoherently in response.
"Aw, cheer up, Padfoot." Remus said with a smile, coming up behind him. "I'm sure you'll find something to raise your spirits.
"Like what?" Sirius challenged dourly.
"I'm sure there will be plenty of descendents from Slytherins in our time that you'll be able to hex."
Sirius grinned, his good mood returning. The wonderful possibilities...
A/N: OK, so this chapter did not really have much happiness or humor in it; it was kind of a downer. But the next chapter will be much less dreary, I promise. The group just had to come to terms with their respective fates (or what they know of them thus far). Also, I'm glad to see that the general consensus was that I had the Marauders find out about their future the right way (overhearing Harry's outburst).
NOTE: I will have HBP spoliers in the next chapter, assuredly.
Sybyll, radical-rebel: Yes, you read right, I did say there would be a sequel (provided there is enough interest at the end of this one). Sybyll, I'm going to have to plead the 5th to your second question about memory re-modification. However, knowing that there will be a sequel you could probably guess that memory charms will not go all around. ;)
soyy: Er, well they are not completely OK yet. That was some disturbing news. I'm sure there will be a bit of PTSD or something else signifying their tramuasoon.
potterfan226, JeNnIfEr88, mizlovegood: Yay, I'm glad you're still enjoying it. :)
Daisfunk: I'm glad that you're liking the direction it is heading in. I will try and make the remaining chapters go much faster and smoother.
-ShIvErInG sMiLe-: Haha, I'll try and not kill you with too many cliffhangers. This chapter wasn't really one, see? It's very exciting to see that you have this marked as one of your fave stories.
RanmasAngel: No you know what happens next.;) Two days, that's not too bad for an update, eh?
BeCkY6: Yes, oh the revalations! Yes, Miranda seems out of place thus far...it will change, I've got a storyline for her, and I thought Lily would need a best friend for support (since she is popular). She will come into her own, I promise, most likely in the next chapter. Plus, I wanted to take on the challenge of trying to make an OC that people would like. Thanks for the spelling correction, btw. I try and re-read things several times before I post them, but of course I always miss something. Thanks for bringing it to my attention (as and English major I am abashed), and I've corrected it.
Anonymous: Thanks for such kind words! I'm sohappy that you find it creative and "awesome". Yes, Sirius and Lily argue a lot, but I have many reasons for that, most however, will be explained in my other story which profiles them through their earlier years at Hogwarts. The short version is that I think Lily and Sirius are a lot alike in certain ways, which could irritate both of them, and that in the ways they differ, they differ so greatly that it causes friction. Plus, now they both kind of are at odd for James' attention (and attention in general), and they both have a desire to be proven right.
The World is a Stage: I'm glad that you think it's cool! I try. To answer your conjecture, it's a little of both isn't it? They got a good deal explained to them, but think of all the information about their future that they have yet to learn (and will have to puzzle out for themselves)...
Tanya J Potter, Mischievous Crystal: It's always awesome to see new people enjoying my story! I hope you continue to do so (and review accordingly)!
Regulus the Pirate: Glad to see you back! That made me so happy to see that you actually missed my story in your absence! It;'s good to hear that you like the new chapters thus far.
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far (especially my repeat reviewers)! Please continue to do so! It makes me want to put up the next chapter faster.