"I'm going after him." Lily announced, looking concernedly in the direction James had stormed off.

"No, I'll go." Sirius averred.

"We'll both go."

"Fine with me."

"I want to go." Harry spoke up, his expression somewhat pinched, his eyes glinting with a hint of confusion; he looked lost. "I made him all upset and I can just—"

"No!" Lily and Sirius cut him off abruptly.

"Why?" Harry challenged. "I want to go."
"Harry, you just—h" Lily began to say gently.

Sirius shook his head vehemently. "No. You're not going. And that's final." He turned away, but Harry caught his arm and whirled him back around.

"You can't tell me what to do. You're only a year older than me; I'm not a kid. And it's my dad and I'm—"

"No!" Sirius bit off, wrenching his arm from Harry's grip.

"WHY NOT?" Harry demanded, getting in Sirius' face.

"Because you don't know him like I do!" Sirius snapped. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them, and could have kicked himself for letting his emotions run away with him again.

Everyone fell silent and stood very still, staring at Harry, unsure of how he would react.

Harry's expression hardened, his eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched, his hands balled into fists. He glowered up at Sirius' more imposing form. "It's not as if I had a choice."

Sirius clasped his hand to his mouth. "Oh, Harry, I—I didn't mean—"

"Yes, you did. And you're right. I didn't get to know James as well as you did, seeing as how he was murdered when I was one! Seeing as how I never had a father!"

"Harry, it's just—"

"No. It's OK. You're right. It's not like you'll be going back to your time and getting to have several long years with him, in addition to the other six you've already had."

"Harry, I'm sor—"

"It's not like I'm never going to see any one of you again after this day or the next. It's not like I'm never going to be able to spend time getting to know my dad after this. So, go ahead. Go."

Lily placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and squeezed it tightly, in an attempt to be comforting. "Harry, he didn't mean for it to come out like that. Sirius is—well, quite frankly, he's a berk a majority of the tine. He often says stupid things without thinking about them first, without thinking about their appropriateness or the condition of the audience those statements fall upon." She glared at him, chastising him with her brilliant green eyes.

"Well, er, she's right and Harry, I really am sor—" Sirius began.

Harry slithered out from Lily's touch. "No, it's OK, he can go." He fixed Sirius with a steely stare. "Go. You do know him better than me. You know him better than I ever will. Have fun. I'm just going to go sit in the Potions dungeon until class starts, studying or something, acting like a good little boy, from a privileged, caring, two-parent family, as you seem to view me." He said scathingly, before stomping off to class.

"Harry wait!" Sirius protested, but Harry ignored him.

"Harry!" Ron shouted, rushing up to him. "C'mon Harry, stop, you know he didn't mean it."

"Actually, what Ron means is that Sirius did mean it, but that's just the way he is!" Hermione burst out a bit breathily, grabbing Harry by the shoulder and forcibly slowing him down.

"Hermione, geroff!" Harry grumbled, pulling out of her grip.

"Oh, Harry, don't be ridiculous!" Hermione snapped. "You know that's precisely the way Sirius is! That's the Sirius you know, the Sirius we all know. It's just the way he is!"

"Don't you think you're being a bit harsh on him, mate?" Ron asked guardedly.

"ME? BEING A BIT HARSH ON HIM!" Harry roared. "Did you hear what he said?"

"Hey, Harry, calm down." Ron held out his hands, palms up, in a classic "Don't-Kill-The-Messenger" pose. "You know we're on your side. It's just that he's our age, and we say stuff without thinking about it sometimes—"

"And Sirius is essentially the same person now that he is—er, was, in our time." Hermione broke in.

"—And we usually regret it later—"

"—He's just as emotional and has that same propensity for unthinking behavior as he does now. He's just like you in that way, Harry. And I think you know he would never say anything with the intention of making you feel horrid."

Harry's face and remained stony and impassive, throughout Hermione and Ron's attempts to console him, while at the same time trying to make him see sense. His jaw was set in anger, his chin raised slightly in defiance, his brilliant green eyes flashing, his mouth twisted in a hint of a sneer. Hermione was temporarily struck by the sheer resemblance he had to the people who would one day be his parents in that moment. Harry had that same James Potter force-to-be-reckoned-with glare, that same James Potter arrogance mixed in amidst the anger, while he had Lily's same facial expressions, that slight curl to the lip and rise of the eyebrows, and most importantly Lily's way of using bravado and over-the-top emotion to cover up the real issue, wounded pride and an inexpressible hurt. Moreover, he clearly had Sirius' penchant for emotional outbursts, Sirius' tendency to often say the wrong thing without thinking twice about it beforehand, and certainly Sirius' inability to see reason or his own faults when he was keyed up. Hermione almost wanted to smile, and would have were the situation not explicitly called for an opposite emotion. He was more like his parents and godfather than he would ever known, could ever possibly know, without having grown up with them.

Harry crossed his arms over his chest and gazed out at his two best friends stubbornly. "I'm not apologizing."

Hermione let out a small ghost of a smile. "We're not asking you to."

"Good. Because I'm not going to. So don't try."

Ron smiled likewise. "We weren't thinking of it, mate."

Hermione glanced at her watch. "Oh! We should get to Potions. Just in case other people started showing up early, since our last class was ended so abruptly."

"Yes, because that's what normal people do." Ron remarked dryly, rolling his eyes but following her anyway.

Sirius turned away from Harry's retreating form just in time to get slapped upside the back of his head by both Lily and Miranda.

"Idiot!" Lily scolded.

"Fool!" Miranda chided.

"OW!" Sirius cried out, stepping back away from them. "What's wrong with the womenfolk?" He muttered crossly to Remus, only to be slapped once again by both girls. "OW!"

"'Womenfolk'?" Miranda repeated. "Since when are you from the 1600's?"

"Since when doesn't he have that mentality?" Remus responded, smiling slightly. He was getting slowly to his feet, gingerly patting down his sides, making sure all of his ribs were in tact. Sirius was a tough opponent to fight and subsequently recover from, even when you were actually prepared for the tussle, which Remus clearly had not been.

"Do you two not know the meaning of 'ow'?" Sirius grumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

"Do you not know the meaning of 'sexist prig'?" Lily responded waspishly. "Or 'think before you speak'?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I'm not that bad."

"Oh really? Then pray tell, how do you feel that exchange went?"

"Honestly, Sirius, on what planet would that cheekiness to Harry be warranted? Or even prudent?" Miranda demanded.

"I mean, don't you think he's been through enough?"

"He grew up without Lily and James—"

"He grew up with my awful relative who are not fit to raise a plant—"

"Of course he didn't get to know James like you did!"

"It's not like he had a choice in the matter—"

"You could have been a little more considerate—"

"You could have tried not being an arrogant git—"

"You probably hurt his pride—"

"Not to mention his self-esteem—"

"He won't forgive you easily—"

"You can't silver-tongue your way out of this one—"

"Moony, help!" Sirius cried out, throwing out his hands in supplication, stormy gray eyes pleading for Remus to save him from the double-teaming attack of the feisty, irate females. He had been in this position before, many, many times, and always relied on Remus to solve it all, to step in and save him from the onslaught and inevitable verbal massacre at the hands of Lily and Miranda.

Remus offered him a weak smile. "I'm afraid you're on your own here, Sirius."

"You evil little wolf-man! Haven't we always been the best of friends? Like soulmates or whatnot, two dogs, both alike in dignity—"

Remus snorted, holding up a hand. "I'm going to have to ask you to please not continue on in this vein, for both Shakespeare's sake, and the sake of my poor literature loving soul. But yes, we were always 'the best of friends' as you put it, two members of dog-kind together, excepting all of times you drooled on my books, got your shaggy black dog (and human) hair on my clothing, oh yeah, and beat me up for reasons that had nothing to do with me, whatsoever, just now." Remus added wryly.

A small smile crept onto Miranda's face. "I didn't know Sirius read any Shakespeare. Frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised had he no idea who the man was."

Lily giggled. "Actually, he has a secret stash."

"Of Shakespeare?"

Lily nodded, grinning broadly. "I had to borrow one of Remus' extra sweaters because mine were all in the wash, and I saw a dog-eared copy of Othello sticking out from under his pillow. On closer inspection, under his bed he has a whole bunch of old literature, even some po—"

"You went through my stuff! That's a clear violation of my right to privacy! I could sue!" Sirius exclaimed, red in the face from embarrassment.

"Try it. I'll just tell the whole school that badass Sirius Black—who is not for never reading for fun or even cracking open a book for studying—cradles a copy of Wu—"

"Stop! OK, OK, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to both of you, what with the calling of you 'womenfolk', and I'm sorry Moony for cracking a rib or two, and I'm sorry for being a complete git to Harry, and can we now go and help James and deal with the mending of relationships later?"

"Not cracked. Only bruised, I expect." Remus corrected.

"Well there! Bright side! And can we also never mention my secret literature preferences again to anyone else ever, Lily?"

Lily smiled sweetly. "We'll have to see about that, Sirius. I can't make any promises. Blackmail is something one should always have at the ready."

"OK, that I can appreciate and abide by."

"Good."

"So then, to James?"

"To James!" Sirius assented, pumping his fist in the air and speaking with a bravado which made it seem as if he were about to plunge headfirst into war, not confront his best friend in a snit. Although, he reasoned, the two were not far removed from one another.

"What else did he have?" Miranda asked Lily excitedly.

Lily turned to Miranda and whispered conspiratorially, "I think he also has a Jane Austen fetish. He has all of her novels and had Lizzie's name all underlined, with comments in the margins after all of her lines, and embellished with smiley faces—"

"I bought Pride & Prejudice used!" Sirius protested. "It's not my writing!"

Remus looked at him, smiling approvingly as he hobbled next to Sirius, on the way to find James. "Nice tastes. I always pegged you more of a Lydia man, myself."

Sirius scowled at him. "You need help, my dear friend. I fear literature as addled your brain."

"As it has likewise addled yours, apparently."

"Shut up!" Sirius retorted, sulkily. "Just all of you shut up!"

James sat on the steps leading up from the Great Hall, elbows resting on his knees, chin in his hands. He barely looked up when the entourage approached. "Go away." He mumbled.

"Ah, you should know by now it'll take more than that to get ride of us, Prongsie-boy." Sirius remarked jovially, throwing himself down on the steps next to James and draping an arm across James' shoulders.

"Leave me alone."

"Oh, come off it, James!" Lily snapped, rolling her eyes and sitting down on James' other side, while Remus and Miranda settled themselves around the trio. "You can't honestly think that Harry was lying to you!"

"After everything else he revealed, you think he would lie about something like this?" Remus questioned softly.

"He lied about other things."

"No, he omitted other things, and not by his choice. He told us the truth when pressed."

"And I think any of us would most certainly say he was pressed in this instance." Miranda added.

"Just leave me alone, all of you. Go bother someone else."

"Who would I rather bother than you, mate?" Sirius asked easily, grinning.

"You really need a hobby, Pads."

"But I've got a perfectly good hobby: bothering you."

"You owe Harry an apology." Lily told him flatly. "You know very well that he was not lying and you yelled at him in front of everyone. It was even worse than how Sirius treated him."

James looked at her quizzically. "What did Pads do?"

"What I did is not important now. It's what you did that we're here about, Prongs."

James glanced down at his slightly scuffed trainers. "I know. I guess I can feel that he's not lying, but I just can't believe he's telling the truth because that would mean that—" His voice trailed off.

"It would mean that Peter is the cause of our deaths." Lily said bluntly.

"Yeah. Couldn't he be wrong? I mean Wormtail would never—he's our friend—"

"I don't want to believe it either, mate, but I think we have to. He seemed pretty contrite."

"But it's Peter. It's Pettigrew, it's the little chubby kid we met on the train first year and rescued from Slytherins and pulled from the lake and helped pass Transfiguration and always looked up to us! It's just impossible! It can't be Peter!"

"I have the same trouble with it that you do. He always admired us, and he looked up to you like you were a god or something, Prongs. How he could—how he could do that it's just—it's against his character. But Harry said…" Sirius couldn't continue.

"How come you have trouble believing Peter would do it, but you didn't think twice about accusing me?" Remus, who had been seething in silence, like always, burst out suddenly.

Sirius stared at him for a moment, cheeks turning pink. "I don't—it's just—erm."

"I was your friend before him! I met you that day in Diagon Alley, when you knocked all the books from my arms, and you take his side over mine!"

"No one is taking sides here!" Miranda asserted.

Lily placed a calming hand on Remus' shoulder. "Remus, no one meant it that way. We all care about you and know you would never—"

"Sure! If you all think so highly of me, think so much of my character that you know I would never sell you out to anyone for any reason, know I would never do anything to harm any of you, then how could you so easily turn on me? How could you so easily accuse me? Sirius, how could you so easily throw me down some steps with no evidence whatsoever?"

"I didn't want to—but it's complicated." Sirius protested.

"It's complicated." Remus repeated, eyes flashing. "Complicated. Of course. Silly me, why didn't I think of that? It's complicated. That explains everything."

"Moony, stop." Sirius bit off. "I apologized. And I never apologize. For anything."

"So because you're a git I can rest easy knowing my 'friends' will turn against me when things get rough."

"You idiot, it's not like that!"

"I'm an idiot now?"

"I didn't mean it like that!"

"Yes, let me put my idiot mind to the test and try and come up with the reason why you are so apt to single me out over anyone else. It's because I'm a werewolf."

"No, of course that's not it." James disagreed, shaking his head. "He didn't mean it to be like that—"

"Yes, he did. Don't lie to me. I knew you were distrustful of me, deep down."

"No, we weren't—"

"I knew you could never really accept me. You said you did but…it's always there, just below the surface."

"Remus, please. All of you! Think rationally." Lily interjected, calmly and soothingly, squeezing Remus's shoulder just slightly. All of our emotions are running high. I mean, it was only an hour or so ago that James and I discovered we're gonna die young, really young, in about three years. We're going to be murdered, by Voldemort, no less. We met our own son, nearly our age, just last night, and that will probably be the only time we are ever able to have a conversation with him. Sirius found out he's going to be imprisoned in Azkaban for facilitating our murder. I really don't think now is the time to examine closely every little thing we say, when logically we only mean about half of those statements! We're all shocked and confused and angry and yes, scared, terrified, so can we save the inferences for when we are all thinking clearly? Can we at least agree to that? For Harry's sake at least, if not for our own?"

Everyone gaped at her and nodded as one. It was always better to go along with Lily when she was like this. Especially when she made a lot of sense.

"Oh, please don't use the Prince's book anymore!" Hermione half-begged, half-chided, as they settled into the Potions dungeon.

"Why shouldn't he?" Ron retorted. "It's given him great luck every time! You're just jealous that he's doing better than you now."

"I am not!" Hermione retorted. "It's just that—it's cheating! You know it is!"

"I don't think it's cheating, do you, Harry?"

Harry smirked. "Nope, not a bit Ron."

Hermione gave strangled cry, low in her throat. "You boys are just so—"

Slughorn entered the room, arms laden with books, whistling jauntily under his breath. He startled at the sight of the trio, shifting his stack of books and putting a hand to his chest.

"Ah, Harry, Hermione! And…Ryan! What a surprise!"

Ron scowled and opened his mouth to correct Slughorn; Hermione kicked him under the table to silence him.

Slughorn shuffled over to his desk to deposit the books. "What are you all doing here so early?"

"Well, Professor Snape, er, fainted during class and—" Hermione began.

"Oh, yes, quite right! Albus mentioned something of the sort when I passed by him in the hall. Ah, Severus always was an excitable boy. Never seemed to get along much with the others, but one of the best at Potions in his year, however. One of the best possibly in the school, except for," Slughorn paused in order to offer Harry a smile. "Well, your dear mother, Lily Evans."

"Erm, thanks." Harry replied, offering a weak smile.

"No need to thank me, my boy!" Slughorn responded jovially, giving a great laugh. "I made out on the deal it seems, getting a student with her same intuitive grasp of potion-making. It makes sense however, for good genes will out!"

It was Hermione's turn to scowl, while Harry's became even more embarrassed.

"And what is it you're doing here? Studying? Ah, just like your mother! She always had a book in her hands, though with that girl she could study half as much as she did and still receive perfect marks. Excellent, Harry, excellent, just don't push yourself too hard, of course. Make sure to take a break for some fun every now and again, eh?"

"Er, yes. Sure. Of course, sir." Harry responded, conscious of both Hermione and Ron's glares at the back of his head.

"Now your mother, she was—"

Harry's shifted instantly towards the door, and away from Slughorn, at the sound of loud footfalls in the corridor.

A moment later and Lily breezed into the room, followed close behind by James, Sirius, Remus, and Miranda. She stepped just inside the doorway and halted abruptly, almost causing James and Sirius to walk right into her. Her mouth dropped open, her eyes lit up, and slowly a smile appeared on her face at the sight of Slughorn bustling about. Finally! Finally, there was something about this horrible future of hers which was familiar, and that was overwhelmingly comforting. He was a little stouter, a little balder, but after all these years and Slughorn was still here in the dungeon, teaching Potions; she felt a swell of happiness and security, a feeling that everything would be alright in the end. Something hadn't changed!

Lily bounced over to Slughorn, beaming. "Hi, Professor Slughorn, I'm so—" She halted, realizing that he couldn't hear her at all.

To her even greater surprise, Slughorn turned around to face her, breaking off in his conversation to Harry mid-sentence. He practically jumped, catching his composure just in time. His dark eyes, prominent in his fleshy face, widened, his mouth formed a rather large "o", and he pressed a hand to his lips, shock written in every line of his face. His gaze swept her over, taking in her clothes, rumpled from having been slept in, her hair, messy in its haphazard ponytail, her youthful appearance, the sparkle in her eyes, the smile on her face. Slowly, his gaze shifted from her to Harry and back again.

"Why—why Harry, my dear boy." Slughorn managed, his voice wavering with shock and emotions. "Why this is—this is all—amazing."

"What do we do?" Hermione hissed, gripping Harry's arm tightly.

Suddenly that same shrill alarm which they had heard when Snape recognized them began again, until Lily managed to stop it with a quick swish of her wand. She was able to stop it because she had finally realized what it had all meant—the alarm, Snape's fit, Slughorn's seeing her—everything, and it was terrifying, and slightly dizzying. She could only stare at Slughorn while he stared back at her.

Slughorn nearly goggled when he saw Lily use her wand. "Why this—incredible. Brilliant, even!" He reached over and touched Lily's shoulder, jerking his hand away almost as quickly. "And she's corporeal! Harry, I am—I am impressed. Deeply impressed."

Hermione's nails bit into the flesh of Harry's upper arm. "What exactly do you mean, Professor?" Harry asked, in what was hopefully an innocent voice.

Slughorn laughed, though not quite so joyously, more subdued, startled, and confused. "No need to play coy, Harry. Take pride, boast. This is—it is simply incredible!" Slughorn exclaimed, eyes shining. "You—you brought back Lily Evans!"

A/N: I kept my promise and updated by the end of the weekend. ;) I also wrote an extra long section for you all to make up for my impending vacation. I will be off on vacation for a month, and will not have internet in my house, so I will not be able to post any long chapters here. So you have a choice: I can either a) wait until school starts up again to post updates, or b) post snippets that I write every now and then on possibly my livejournal or something elseto tide you all over until I get back. Your choice. :)

Also, please read and review! I will try and reply to each review individually, if anyone has any comments, suggestions, or questions they would like me to address personally. :)