"Come see me, when you get there." Howard mock saluted and sauntered from the chamber.

"Only Stark." Phillips muttered.

"Be grateful there's only one of him." Peggy warned.

"Oh, I am." Phillips nodded. "I most certainly am."

An alarm quietly beeped.

"One minute, gentlemen." Peggy warned.

"Yes, ma'am." Bucky stood up and began to check Sirius' gear, once he was done, Sirius checked his in return. "We're good to go."

Sirius Black landed on his hands and knees, while his travelling companion (and lover), Bucky Barnes, landed on his feet and with some staggering, managed to stay on them.

"Bugger." Sirius muttered.

"Did it work?" Bucky asked.

Sirius raised his head and saw the familiar shape of the Shrieking Shack. "We're in Scotland, but I don't know when, yet." He replied. "Give me a moment and I'll check." His wand was pulled from the holster that Howard had made him, from very fine metal cables woven like fabric. "Tempus et Locus." He cast and watched as his own writing appeared in the air.

11:15pm

17th June 1996

12 Cuthbertson Lane

Hogsmeade, Scotland.

"Oh…" Sirius exclaimed almost silently.

"What?" Bucky raised his head sharply and looked to Sirius, who was still studying the floating writing. Bucky turned his attention to them and frowned. "Was that an option?"

"No, it wasn't." Sirius replied.

"I think we have another problem, too." Bucky was now looking at Sirius' face.

"What now?" Sirius muttered, still focused on the writing.

"Um…?" Bucky hesitated, causing Sirius to turn away from the floating lettering and look at Bucky.

It took less than a minute for Sirius to realise what Bucky was seeing. "Oh, Merlin…" He whispered. "You're younger."

"Not just me." Bucky protested.

"Me…?" Sirius grimaced.

"Yep."

"Ah… By how much, I wonder?" Sirius lifted his wand and cast again. "Aetate Revelare."

In front of Bucky's chest a series of numbers began to form, they started slowly before speeding up and blurring, eventually settling into a steadily glowing series.

25yrs, 3 months, 8 days, 4 hrs.

"Right…" Sirius said slowly.

"Well?" Bucky asked.

"You're twenty-five." Sirius responded. "But I can't cast that on myself."

"So we need another wizard?" Bucky already knew the answer to that.

"We do."

"So... how do we get someone here?" Bucky asked. "And who?"

Siris didn't answer, instead he reached out and took hold of the collar of Bucky's coat and pulled him closer, close enough to press his lips against Bucky's for a few seconds. When he pulled back, he whispered. "Expecto patronum." Once the silvery, patronus version of his Animagus form shimmered into place in front of him, he whispered again. "Message to Remus, don't deliver until he's returned to Grimmauld Place." The Grimm nodded and it's mouth opened in order to accept the message. "Umm… Think something went sideways, there. Meet me at the house of the moon?" He nodded and the Grimm turned and vanished into the nearest tree. "Right, that should reach Moony sometime after the Ministry debarkle but he's not likely to turn up here until after half-two."

"So, where do we have to go?" Bucky asked. "And how do we fill that time?"

"There." Sirius pointed at the tumbledown shack about a hundred yards away. "And I want cuddles. Right now, my alternate self is running around frantically, trying to find why our godson left the school with five other teens. Just the memory makes me feel sick with worry."

Three hours later and four-hundred-and-fifty-odd miles south, a sandy haired man slumped in a dirty chair, in an equally dirty room. He'd just watched his best friend killed and the nephew of his heart, possessed and tortured by a madman. His elbows rested on the dirty table and his head lay on his arms, while his shoulders trembled with suppressed sobs.

A warmth infused him, a familiar warmth and the feel of his friend's magic surrounded him.

It was quickly followed by his friend's voice. "Umm… Think something went sideways, there. Meet me at the house of the moon?" He raised his head, just in time to see his friend's Patronus collapse in on itself.

"What the…?" He gasped silently. He sat there for a few seconds, in a state of shock, before the shock faded enough for him to grasp what the Patronus meant. "Alive…?!" He leapt to his feet and ran from the kitchen, passing Molly and Arthur Weasley in the hallway.

"Remus?" Molly asked.

"No time." Remus yelled over his shoulder.

"Remus?" Tonks asked as he reached the door.

"No time, must dash." He ran out into the night and stopped in the middle of street, pausing briefly, then apparated away.

The shack appeared before him and he hurried towards the only external entrance of the building that he'd spent so much time in. Inside, he climbed the stairs to the trashed sitting room that was the marauders' meeting place.

Over near the fireplace, stood an impossibility.

"What do we say?" He snarled.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The impossibility answered.

"How do we ask?" Remus asked a second question.

"Mr Padfoot requests the assistance of Mr Moony, in working out how the hell, whatever the hell it was, happened." Sirius snorted. "And maybe setting up a prank on the Ministry and old snakeface, as they believe that Mr Padfoot is dead."

Remus leapt across the room and engulfed the smaller man in a smothering hug.

"If I didn't know better, I'd be jealous." A third voice said, causing Remus to let to of Sirius and spin towards the unknown voice, a hex leaving his wand as the man came into view.

Sirius gasped as a red light flew towards the man. It dissipated as it touched him, leaving the three men staring at the man's chest. "Was that supposed to happen?" The man asked.

"No…" Remus frowned and cast again and again the red light cut off as it touched the man.

"Oi, leave him alone." Sirius swatted at Remus.

"What was it supposed to do?" The man asked.

"Uh…" Remus grunted his confusion.

"Stunning spell." Sirius answered.

"Like what you used on Howard?" The man asked.

"Yep. The same." Sirius crossed to the man's side. "That didn't touch you?" He laid a hand on the man's chest.

"It did." The man nodded. "It just didn't do anything."

"I wonder why?"

"Padfoot?" Remus asked.

"Oh, right, introductions." Sirius pulled the man with him as he re-joined Remus. "Moony, this is James Buchannan Barnes, also known as Bucky." He patted Bucky's arm.

"Moony?" Bucky asked. "Remus Lupin, right?"

"Yes, love." Sirius nodded.

"Love?" Remus asked, raising a brow.

"Love." Padfoot nodded.

"How long?" Remus narrowed his eyes.

"Nearly two years." Sirius grimaced.

"The Veil sent you somewhere, didn't it?"

"Germany, 1945."

"For two years?"

"One full year and three solstices."

"And you were with him? All that time?"

"He saved my life within minutes of arriving there." Bucky answered. "I wasn't letting him go."

"Squib?"

"Muggle." Sirius shook his head. "Or he was…"

"Was…?" Remus tilted his head.

"I cast an age revealing cast on him earlier and it worked but your stupefy didn't." Sirius had a contemplative expression on his face.

"We need more information." Remus wore a similar expression.

"For those of us not marauders, an explanation, please." Bucky sighed and shook his head.

"My magic worked on you but Remus' didn't, we need to know why." Sirius explained in a single sentence.

"The Veil-thing?" Bucky had sat through enough of Sirius and Howard's sessions to know that the Veil changed things that entered it.

"Yes, but how, in what way?" Sirius said. "Is it just my magic that works on you or is it just offensive spells that don't work? Or is it just stunning spells that don't work? Or is it that charms work on you but hexes don't? What about jinxes and curses?"

"Ah." Bucky nodded. "Have Remus cast few non-offensive spells. That should give you something to base future research on."

"True." Sirius nodded. "Remus? Colour change jinx, followed by a toe-biter hex, then a tickling jinx and a warming charm. If you please, Mr Moony?"

Remus looked at Bucky and when the man nodded, he cast the spells, waiting a few seconds between each one to see if they worked or not.

"Nothing…" Sirius frowned. "Try the age revealing charm, please." Remus nodded and cast and the three watched as still nothing happened. "Huh… Okay. So we can rule out Remus' magic."

"Yeah." Bucky nodded. "But is it only his or is it all but yours?"

"We'd need another wizard for that." Sirius said.

"So, who we calling, this time?" Bucky grinned.

"Hold up, hold up." Remus held up his hands. "A minute ago, you mentioned the ministry and snakeface thinking you were dead. Let's focus on that, please. We can sort out his magical immunity later."

"He's right." Bucky said.

"But-"

"Siri." Bucky said firmly.

"Bugger." Sirius muttered. "Alright. I went into the Veil. There were witnesses, right? Not just you and Harry. Oh, Harry…" Sirius shook himself. "Focus, focus. Right. Witnesses."

"Yes, the Minister heard Bellatrix claim to have killed you." Remus nodded. "Moody told Albus what happened. The kids were taken back to Hogwarts and Albus was going to talk to Fudge before he headed back there, too."

"I'm dead, right?" Sirius grinned. "If snakeface thinks I'm dead, he's not going to be looking for me."

"Particularly, as you look a lot younger, now." Bucky said, causing Remus to blink and focus on his friend.

"Gods, he right, you do look younger." Remus whispered.

"Cast the age revealing charm in him, please." Bucky requested. "The Veil-thing changed my age, too. I was only a few months off of turning thirty and now, according to Siri's charm, I'm a few months passed twenty-five."

"Aetate Revelare." Remus said firmly, his wand pointed Sirius and waited for the letters and numbers to appear in front of Sirius' chest.

25yrs, 7 months, 16 days, 19hrs.

"Oh, that's nice." Sirius beamed at Bucky and the two shared a private moment without Remus feeling like he had to turn away.

"It's also very handy." Remus said after a few moments. "A minor transfig of your features and no-one is going to assume you're Sirius Black, you're too young."

"Excellent…" The other marauder smirked.

"What do you plan to do?" Remus asked nervously, Sirius' plans tended to be convoluted.

"New identity for me." Sirius started. "New papers for Bucky. Marry Bucky. Get Albus to approve Bucky and I training Harry… and maybe Ron and Hermione. Get Albus to actually explain why he thinks Harry is so important to this war. And help Harry do whatever it is he has to do, to end this war."

"Hmm…" Remus hummed. "New identities and papers are going to mean Moody followed by Gringotts. The rest requires Albus' involvement."

"I know." Sirius shrugged. "I'm hoping he can see the benefit of letting me play dead until the war's over."

"Shall I send him a Patronus?" Remus asked.

"Please do." Sirius nodded and raised a brow at Bucky's frown. "Ah…?"

"I'm not kissing him." Bucky objected.

Remus started to laugh and Sirius went bright red.

"You… You don't need to." Remus chuckled. "Patronus charm is powered by positive emotion, having Sirius back is positive enough for me."

"No-one's kissing you, but me." Sirius growled.

"No, I'm fine with that." Bucky nodded and pulled Animagus against him, resting one hand on the other man's hip, his thumb into the waist of his trousers.

Albus Dumbledore sighed as he left Minister's office and headed for the atrium and the apparition points. Before he could reach them, however, a Patronus in the form of a large wolf, reached him and delivered its message.

"Albus, I need you to come to the house of the moon, I have Grimm news." There was an odd emphasis on the word 'Grimm'.

He knew, of course, that the wolf was Remus Lupin's Patronus, but the message confused him. The barely hidden excitement and the phrasing made Dumbledore frown and he decided that perhaps he had best see what had upset the werewolf before he retired for the night, even though dawn was only a few hours away.

Upon reaching the atrium, he apparated away, appearing in a hidden spot between Hogsmeade and the Shrieking Shack. He sighed and entered the shack, greeted by a beaming Lupin.

"What is so important that it could not wait until morning, Remus?" Dumbledore asked.

"Turn around." Lupin pointed behind Dumbledore.

Dumbledore spun in place and blinked in shock at what he saw. A clean, tidy and very much younger Sirius Black being passionately kissed by another man.

"Ahem, excuse me, gentlemen." Lupin interrupted them.

"What?" Black raised his head, only to meet the amused gaze of his former Headmaster. "Albus!" He cheered.

"Sirius Black." Dumbledore whispered.

"I'm ba-ack…" Sirius said in a sing-song manner.