The-Boy-From-The-Future

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Harry Potter or other associated characters and ideas.

Chapter 5

The object of Hermione's intense focus was trying to eat his dinner while ignoring a pounding headache and a chattering Pansy Parkinson on his left. Hearing a snicker from in front of him, he looked up too quickly and nearly passed out.

"Schwarz, maybe you should have gone straight to the hospital wing," said Draco worriedly, noticing James' dizzy spell.

Millicent, who had stopped snickering, frowned and said, "What happened to you? You like you've walked into a wall."

Draco smirked cruelly as he buttered his toast. "Close, Bulstrode, close. He walked into Potter."

Millicent winced.

"I think you ought to go see Madam Pomfrey," said Pansy, who had stopped chatting to Daphne Greengrass. "You look quite ill."

"Mmm," said James, gently massaging his right temple, his eyes shut before he stood up gingerly, holding onto the table for support.

"Do you need any help?" said Pansy. Draco and Blaise had stopped munching to observe James.

"'M fine," said James, walking determinedly away from the Slytherin table and out of the Great Hall.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Madam Pomfrey?" said a weak voice.

Poppy Pomfrey poked her head out of her office. "Yes, dear, just coming."

James rested on the edge of the closest bed and held his aching head in his hand. He looked up and smiled weakly when Madam Pomfrey bustled up to him.

"I need something for my head Madam Pomfrey. I walked into someone on the way to dinner," he said sheepishly.

"It wouldn't be Mr Potter that you walked into, would it?" she asked as she tapped the indicated spot gently with the tip of her wand. The pain in James' head immediately lessened.

James just nodded silently in relief.

"Hmm," commented Madam Pomfrey. She left and returned with a small vial. "Take this just before you go to bed. You've eaten, haven't you?"

When James shook his head, she tutted and pushed him bodily towards a hospital bed.

"Erm, it's alright, I'm sure my friends saved something for me," said James hurriedly, not wanting to spend the night in the hospital wing.

Madam Pomfrey didn't deign acknowledge his feeble excuse and instead drew back a curtain to reveal a bed, cabinet, table and chair. Directing him to the chair, she tapped the table four times with her wand. After only a few seconds, there was a loud 'pop' and a bowl of thick vegetable soup and some bread appeared. A second 'pop' and a goblet of pumpkin juice sat next to the soup.

"There," said Madam Pomfrey. "Pyjamas, toothbrush and towel are on the bed, and don't forget to take your potion," she said sternly. However, her tone did soften when she left saying, "I just want to keep an eye on you; make absolutely certain that you're alright." She paused. "If you need anything, I'll be in my office."

Sighing audibly, James tore off a piece of bread and proceeded to eat the soup, which was actually very tasty. However, just before he drained the goblet of pumpkin juice, he had a thought. Uncorking the vial, he took a deep breath before downing the foul-tasting potion. Only then did he quickly gulp down his pumpkin juice, grateful to have something on hand to counteract the potion's nasty aftertaste.

It wasn't long before James was ready for bed. Sliding under the warm blankets and resting his head on the fluffy pillow, he shut his eyes and fell into a deep sleep immediately.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

James woke up early, his headache completely gone. After being seen by Madam Pomfrey, he swiftly made his way back down to the dungeons, hoping to get a quick shower before he ate.

Deciding to take a shortcut he knew of, he managed to shave off a good five minutes of the long walk back. However, just as he emerged from the tapestry, he belatedly realised that he'd come out right in the middle of the Gryffindors' route to the Great Hall.

"Harry, Ron, it's him!" said a very familiar voice from behind him. Quickening his pace, James shouldered his way through a group of Second Years and managed to make it to the staircase just before it started to swing round. Risking a quick peek back, he smirked inwardly when he saw that Harry, Ron and Hermione were scowling at the uncooperative staircase.

"Morning all," said James to his friends at the Slytherin table.

"Schwarz, how are you?" asked Draco, dropping his toast in surprise as James sauntered into the Great Hall and eased himself between Draco and Blaise.

"Much better, thanks. Madam Pomfrey sorted out the headache in no time, but then she found out I hadn't eaten dinner so I couldn't take some foul potion and so I was made to stay the night so she could 'keep an eye on me'. Tell me, is she always like that?"

Blaise chuckled and nodded. "Be glad you don't play Quidditch, Schwarz. You'd probably never get out of the hospital wing otherwise, if you really are as clumsy as you make yourself out to be."

"Hey!" said James with a slight frown. "Why can't I play Quidditch?" he continued, after Blaise rolled his eyes at James' sensitivity. Although he knew very well that the Quidditch trials were over, James couldn't resist asking his new friends.

"Trials are over," said Draco. "Unless we have a major injury or something, the team's all sorted for the year."

"Oh. So who's on the team?" asked James.

Draco smirked. "Well, I'm captain and Seeker, Crabbe and Goyle over there are Beaters..." Draco trailed off as he scanned the rest of the table. "Can't see the rest of the team, of course, anyway, you'll see them at our next match."

"I see," said James, smiling slyly at Draco. "At least I now know who to incapacitate in order to get onto the team," he continued.

"And who's that?" asked Millicent, who sat across the table.

James simply jerked his head to his left, leaving the others who were listening to the conversation to stifle their laughter.

"Well that was smart, Schwarz. The minute I get an injury, everyone's going to blame you now," said Draco and although he was smirking with his usual confidence, he was watching James warily.

"Relax, Malfoy," said James. "I'm not going to lurk in the corners of the Common Room and hex you when your back's turned."

"No," said Draco dryly. "You'll stand in the middle of the Common Room and hex me in full sight of the House, and then conveniently forget the counter-curse."

"You're not still on about the stripes, are you?" asked Pansy, from Draco's left.

"Polka dots, Pansy, they were polka dots," snapped Draco irritably.

"You're just so easy to bait," she responded, cheekily winking at him.

Draco just shook his head in defeat and turned to speak to James and Blaise.

"So what's your first lesson?" he asked.

James fumbled with his pockets for a bit before extracting an extremely crumpled bit of parchment. After smoothening it out next to his cereal bowl, James ran a finger down, stopping at the blank space that appeared immediately after 'Breakfast'.

"Erm, looks like a free period to me," he said. Blaise leaned over and inspected the timetable.

"Yup, you've got a free lesson with me. D'you want to meet up in the library?"

"Sounds good," said James, folding the parchment up into a neat square. "How about you, Draco?"

"Ancient Runes," he muttered. "And I can't seem to find - oh don't worry. Found it." A neat roll of parchment was set next to the still crumpled square that was James' timetable.

"Malfoy, is that your Runes homework?" asked Theodore Nott from further down the table.

Draco looked up, nodded, and then said, "No, Nott, you may not read my translation."

Nott looked mildly offended before shrugging.

James turned his attention back to Blaise and Millicent, who were comparing properties of certain potions ingredients and breakfast flew by.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"There he is."

"Where?"

"There, Ronald, next to Malfoy."

"Oh." There was a pause. "They're really chummy, aren't they? S- Padfoot wouldn't have been too happy, would he?"

"He's in Slytherin, Ron. If he didn't want to get hexed into next week, he'd have to be chummy with Malfoy."

"Quiet, you two. How are we going to get his attention without Malfoy?"

"Well, I suppose Harry could get into a fight with Malfoy- oww! What was that for?"

"Harry is not going to get into a fight with Malfoy. Schwarz'll probably just jump in and help Malfoy."

"Good point."

"How about we just walk up to him and ask to have a talk in private?"

"You know, Harry, at the moment, that sounds like the only sensible plan we've come up with."

"Thank you, Hermione."

"My pleasure, Harry."

"Hey mate, that's my girlfriend you're making eyes at."

"I- hey, Malfoy's leaving. Come on, we'd better get Schwarz before he disappears into the dungeons again."

"Well, we could always go down and get him…no? Ok, fine, fine, just joking."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Maybe I'll see you at lunch, then," said James before he turned away from Draco. The two had bumped into each other (not literally) in the corridor as James left the library. Blaise had disappeared earlier with a Ravenclaw girl, so James was alone until he met Draco ,who was complaining about botching a translation in Ancient Runes, 'when that Mudblood Granger managed to get a perfect score'.

Not taking too kindly Draco's reference to his Aunt Hermione's heritage, James had significantly cooled the tone of his voice, and Draco, taking the hint, decided to leave.

James walked a few feet down the corridor before he stopped and pulled out his very battered timetable. Arithmancy, proclaimed the crumpled bit of parchment, and James sighed. Roughly shoving the timetable back into the pocket of his robes, James made to leave when he heard someone calling his name.

"Schwarz," said Harry awkwardly.

"Potter," echoed James.

"Erm…well, it's just that we were wondering -"

"I don't mean to be rude, Potter," interrupted James, "But I need to get to Arithmancy, and as I'm not entirely sure where the classroom is, I need to set off earlier than most."

"Oh," said Harry, stumped. "Erm…"

"I'll show you the way," said Hermione brightly. "And Harry and Ron don't have anything next lesson, so they usually walk me to my class."

James seemed to hesitate for a second, but then he blinked and nodded.

There was complete silence on the walk to the Arithmancy classroom. Once they reached the door, Harry and Ron muttered goodbyes to Hermione and James and quickly left without another word.

The lesson passed blissfully. James adored Arithmancy and that fact was quite clear to the Professor Vector of this time too, who soon began summoning James to the front to demonstrate the solutions to the trickier problems. James had thankfully chosen a seat next to a Ravenclaw girl called Padma (he thought that she looked rather like a girl a few years below him back in his time) and so was able to avoid Hermione for the entire period.

Unfortunately, his luck ran out at the end of the lesson. While James managed to avoid Hermione on the way out of the classroom, he had barely taken a few steps before two pairs of hands yanked him behind a tapestry, one hand quickly covering his mouth, and a muffled voice whispered, "Petrificus totalus."

James felt his hands slamming to his sides and his legs locking together rigidly, along with the rest of his body. Catching a flash of scarlet and gold from the corner of his eye, he groaned mentally, suddenly realising what had happened.

There was a slight rustle. James assumed that Hermione had entered the now very cramped alcove.

"Thanks, you two. He gave me the slip again."

"Don't worry, Hermione, he's obviously not a Slytherin for nothing."

"Erm…talking about Slytherins, d'you reckon he'd go blabbing off to Malfoy and that lot about this? I mean, it's just that we probably don't want an inter-house war going on in school to complement the one outside, and if -"

"Harry, if Schwarz is who we think he is, then he won't mind; besides, Hermione's got that potion just in case we're wrong, right?"

"Well, I'd rather not have to use it, but Ron's right, we always have the potion for back-up. Besides, you've hexed Schwarz already, so…"

"Right, right. Well, we'd better stop wasting time and get moving. Erm…Hermione, can you open the door? He's not exactly light."

Well, thanks a lot, Dad, thought James. He heard a muffled thud and felt himself being manoeuvred towards what was previously a stone wall. As he was facing down, the only thing he saw was rapidly moving floor.

Then, he felt his limbs being manipulated, and before long, he was sitting, bound, in a chair facing his future father, godfather and godmother.

"Finite incantatum," said Hermione.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" yelled James the second he had use of his mouth again. He struggled to free his hands, but they had done a good job of securing him to the chair. His attempt at rocking the chair to loosen the bonds only resulted in him being tipped over to the side.

Ron didn't even try to hide his snicker as Harry and Hermione quickly set him upright again. "Ron," said Hermione warningly.

Then, turning to James, she said with a pleading tone, "We're really sorry we had to do this, James. But you kept avoiding us. And we really, really have to ask you this question."

James kept his face expressionless.

Harry gulped before jumping in at the deep end.

"Are you Sirius Black's son?" he asked.

James jerked his head up in surprise. What? Am I…? Great, just great. No wonder Professor Snape harped on about my father jumping to conclusions far too easily. What do I do now?

Just go for 'clueless'. That's it.

James arranged his face into a perfect (and true) expression of surprise and disbelief.

"Are you lot completely loony? Of course not!"

The three in front of him paused. Hermione was biting her lip, looking thoughtful. "Look, James, we understand it if you don't want anyone to know, but, look. Sirius was Harry's godfather, and…" She trailed off, looking towards Harry.

"James, if we've made a mistake, we're sorry. But if Sirius really is your father, then…well, I just thought it'd be nice to get to know you, that's all." He shrugged lightly.

James sighed. "Look, Potter. I'm not Sirius Black's son. Sorry to disappoint you. Now, if you just untie me, I swear, I won't mention this to anyone. I'll just pretend it never happened, okay?"

Looking deflated, Harry nodded and swished his wand, incanting softly under his breath. The bonds sprung free and James stood up, rotating his wrists. A short nod to the trio, and he left the room.

"Well," said Ron, speaking after the pregnant pause that followed the bang of the door. "Guess we were barking up the wrong tree then, weren't we?"

"Ron, now really isn't the time for jokes," said Hermione testily. Ron frowned at Harry who just shrugged again. "But I still think that…no, I know that Schwarz is hiding something. I just can't think what."

"Well Hermione, I'm sure you'll work it out eventually. Let's get out of this room, it's too dusty," said Harry, stifling a sneeze as he turned and moved towards the door.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The rest of James' day past without anymore interruptions. He went to lessons, ate with the Slytherins and, at five to seven, was stood outside the door to the Potions classroom.

At a quarter to twelve, he left the Potions room, massaging his hands in an attempt to ease the cramp in his right thumb that was a result of scraping and scrubbing countless cauldrons.

"Schwarz, how was detention?" asked Blaise when James wandered into the empty Slytherin Common Room.

James smiled wryly and said, "How do you expect detention to be?"

Instead of replying to James' question, Blaise said instead, with a wince, "Scrubbing cauldrons?"

"I'll survive," said James as he joined the other Slytherins in his year. "What are you lot up to, then?"

"Nothing much," said Draco casually. He, Blaise, Pansy and Millicent were grouped around a low table next to the fireplace. Several textbooks were laid out, and Draco and Pansy held quills. Rolls of parchment lay scattered around them.

"Doesn't look like 'nothing much' to me," said James as he stepped around Millicent to get a better look.

"It's just some…plans," said Blaise. "You look tired," he continued. "Why don't you go up to the dorm first? We won't be long."

James shook his head as he spun around. "Zabini, a four-year old could see through that. I know when I'm not wanted. You could've just said so."

The quartet stared at James' retreating back.

"Shouldn't someone -" began Pansy.

"No," interrupted Draco. "He's not bad, but we've known him for less than a week. We don't know what side he'd throw his support to." Draco looked seriously at his friends.

"We can be friends, but there's a high possibility that Jam-Schwarz could be a plant sent to spy on us. You have to admit, it's highly suspicious that we get a student in the middle of the year."

"That's true Draco, but he has an airtight explanation for that," countered Millicent.

"Still," said Draco. "It doesn't hurt to be careful."

Ok, so that was Chapter 5. Hope you enjoyed it; yes a longer chapter of better quality was promised and although there may be doubts about the quality, it was definitely longer. But then there are always those who support the 'Quality, not Quantity' arguement. So hopefully this was quality and quantity. Best of both worlds :)

Right, stop babbling.

Thanks for reading!