Author's Note: Here is the next installment of The Correction of Time! I'm so excited about this story. Thank you to everybody for the reviews, favorites, follows! I am beyond blown away by the response. Please keep up the reviews and let me know what you think of how the story is progressing. Again this is a short chapter, but I promise you the chapters will get longer. The first few chapters really are simply background information before we start getting into the action. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling therefore I own nothing.

Chapter 1

James Potter's life had been a charmed one. He had amazing parents, three of the best friends he could have ever asked for, and the girl he had been in love with since he was eleven years old had finally agreed to go out with him at the beginning of the year.

There wasn't much the Marauder could ask for, except for one thing: Charlotte, his baby sister. He had only been five when she had been kidnapped, so he didn't remember much about her, but he remembered how much he loved her and how heart broken his parents had been when their four year old baby girl vanished without a trace. It had been twelve years since Charlotte disappeared, and while the aurors had declared her legally dead after five years, the Potter family still held out hope she would one day return to them.

It wasn't often James thought about Charlotte anymore—it hurt too much—but typically around major events he couldn't help but wish she were there to celebrate with him. With his graduation soon, as well as his plans to propose to his girlfriend Lily, he was feeling her absence even more lately.

So as James walked around the Black Lake late at night on May 1st, under his invisibility cloak, thinking about how he was going to propose to Lily, he came to the conclusion that it was time for him to lay his sister to rest. Not wanting to feel as if he is constantly waiting anymore, he decided to say goodbye to Charlotte, knowing that she would always be with him in spirit.

Upon realizing how late it was getting—or actually how early, he guessed—James quickly made his way back to the castle. He was cutting through the clearing behind the greenhouses when a brilliant white light blinded him. It was a few moments before his vision cleared and he could see through the darkness once more and what he saw had him scrambling into action.

Laying barely five feet in front of him, unconscious, was a bloodied and bruised girl. He rushed over, knelt down next to her, and began to try and revive her.

"Enervate!" James shouted, not caring if somebody heard him.

The thin, almost emaciated girl, began to stir and groan. "Uuuhhh….." the girl muttered and slowly opened her eyes to see a head of messy black hair and glasses, "Harry, what happened?"

"Miss, miss...are you okay? My name is James. No no no, you can't go back to sleep. You may have hit your head. Come on stay with me!" He exclaimed as the unknown girl, who couldn't be older than fifteen, maybe sixteen, started to drift back into unconsciousness. The more he looked at her though the more familiar she seemed to him, but he couldn't tell through the heavy darkness of the night.

"Everything hurts. Harry, make it stop. I want to go back to sleep now," she mumbled as her eyes close.

"Come on now, none of that. My name is James, not Harry. I need to get you to the Hospital Wing. It may hurt, me picking you up, but I promise I'll make it stop soon." James was now frantic. He didn't know who the witch was, or how she got onto Hogwarts grounds, but she was clearly not a danger at the moment. Tucking his wand into his pocket, he scooped up the girl silently horrified at how light she was—before racing back to the castle as fast as his long legs could carry him.

On the way, the witch fully lost consciousness but he couldn't be bothered to try and revive her again. Despite the fact she might have had a concussion and probably shouldn't sleep, she was clearly in a lot of pain, so he wanted to get her to Madam Pomfrey as quickly as possible.

James finally burst into the deserted Hospital Wing, shouting for the mediwitch as he deposited the small witch on a bed.

A bleary eyed, Madam Pomfrey made her way out of her office while wrapping her dressing gown around herself, "Mr. Potter? What is going on? What happened?"

She lit a few lamps with a flick of her wand before turning to face the Head Boy. Before he could respond to her inquiries, she caught sight of the unconscious witch on the bed. Without further ado, she pushed James out of the way as she started to run diagnostic spells on her newest patient.

"Mr. Potter," Madam Pomfrey called, "Mr. Potter!" The older witch repeated herself when there wasn't a response. She turned around to see the young man just staring at the girl with a pained look in his eyes. "Mr. Potter, you need to pay attention. Now!" She snapped her fingers in his face to get his focus.

"Sor-sorry. What did you ask?"

"I need to know what happened. Who is she? Where did you find her? Any details, please."

"She's….I don't know who she is, but she looks—feels—familiar. I found her outside, though. I was out by the lake and walking back inside when there was a bright flash of light, and she was just there. She woke up for a minute asking about somebody named Harry before she passed out again."

"The fact that you were deliberately breaking curfew will be addressed later, however, right now please go wake Professor Dumbledore and bring him here." The mediwitch instructed him to do as she returned to diagnosing and healing the witch.

James paused, not wanting to leave—feeling the need to keep her in his sights at all times—but, after a few moments, he turned and ran out of the Hospital Wing. The sooner he woke Professor Dumbledore, though, the sooner he could get back to the mysterious witch. Halfway to the headmaster's office he ran into Professor Dumbledore as well as his head of house, Professor McGonagall — the latter giving him a very stern and disappointed look.

"Professors," he addressed, slightly out of breath, "Madam Pomfrey sent me to get you, Headmaster. It's urgent!"

With a twinkle in his eye, Albus Dumbledore greeted the young man. "Good evening, Mr. Potter. May I ask what is so urgent? We currently have another matter that we must attend to."

"I found a girl;she's in really bad shape. I brought her to Madam Pomfrey, but we don't know who she is. She just….appeared on the grounds near the greenhouses."

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips and addressed her student, "And just what was the Head Boy doing so far out of bounds?"

With a sigh James admitted, "I was walking back to the castle from the lake when I found her; I have no excuse for my behavior. Take points later. Please, we need to hurry." And with that, James turned around and flew back down the hallway, trusting that his two professors were behind him. Once back in the Hospital Wing, James took a seat right next to the occupied bed and didn't plan to move for the rest of the night.

Madam Pomfrey had finished her work for the time being and decided to speak with Albus and Minerva trying to coerce the Head Boy back to his dorms could wait. "Her tests show most of her injuries are superficial—cuts and bruises mostly—but she is also severely malnourished, as well as magically exhausted. I don't know what happened, but it seems as if her magical core has recently gone through a very large and sudden change. There are also traces of dark magic used on her; the Cruciatus Curse as well as a few others." Before she could continue, the normally stoic mediwitch paused to choke back a few tears.

"What else, Poppy?" The headmaster gently asked.

"Scars. She has a few nasty ones. One down her chest and another on her forearm; you will have to see that one for yourself."

"Do you have any idea who she is or where she came from?" Minerva questioned her old friend and colleague.

"None at all."

"She is definitely not a student here. I woke up Minerva once I felt the wards shift around the school. Somebody Apparated onto school grounds," the old headmaster began to explain.

Madam Pomfrey interrupted, "That's impossible, Albus."

With a slight chuckle, he continued, "Quite, but that is what happened. Minerva and I were on our way outside to check the grounds when young Mr. Potter accosted us."

"What should we do? We can't just leave an unknown girl in the school. She could be dangerous!" Minerva reasoned.

Again Albus chuckled, a slight twinkle in his eye. "I highly doubt that, Minerva, but you are right. I trust Poppy has already removed her wand from her person until such a time that we can figure out who she is and where she came from. Until then, let her sleep and heal. We will all still be here tomorrow." The headmaster then looked over to see James Potter slumped in a chair, asleep. "And let Mr. Potter sleep for now. Based on his actions earlier, I don't believe he could be persuaded back into his room tonight."

After a few more minutes of briefly discussing theories on the curly haired witch, the headmaster and transfiguration professor left to head back to bed, while Madam Pomfrey levitated the sleeping seventh year into the bed next to her patient before she headed back into her office to sleep for a few more hours.

Author's Note: this chapter has now been edited. Thank you again to my two Betas Bookworm4life0812 and MamaWeasley27! You guys rock!