Chapter 20

Cnorth

Disclaimer: All HP characters belong to JKR. Any characters you don't recognize are mine, except the main girls, who are, of course, their own property. Runs from friends who are coming after her with matching glares

A/N: This chapter will be going back and forth between the two time periods, so be prepared for POV switches frequently.

James skidded around the corner and through the front doors of Hogwarts, his momentum almost slamming him into a wall as he tried to get away from his pursuers. A sandy haired blur whizzed past him as Remus gained the lead, and he could see Sirius and Peter gaining on him out of the corner of his eye. He grinned…there was no way he was gonna make it that easy on them. He put on a last burst of speed, and whispered a spell that sped him up. Before he knew it, he had reached the lakeshore.

"Hey, no fair Prongs, that's cheating!" Sirius called from behind him, stopping as he saw his friend was staring in awe at a group of people, two of whom had just emerged gasping from the lake, and another who looked so much like James he could have been his doppelganger. Except for the eyes. Come to think of it, the gasping unconscious boy who had been pulled from the lake looked rather like Lucius Malfoy, who happened to be standing even closer than James and himself, along with Severus Snape, his best friend.

The two who had popped out of the lake so unexpectedly had passed out, and Snape and Malfoy were now standing over them, wands out pointed at the other teens who, judging from the soaked state of their clothes, had made a similar entrance before they arrived. Sirius started towards them, but just then Remus caught up, and dragging him and James behind a tree, he quickly shushed the two.

"We don't know anything about these people. We should wait, eavesdrop on what Lucius and Severus say to them, and then intervene if we need to." Remus was the only one of the Marauders who was actually on speaking terms with the two slytherins, and the less mature two quickly agreed that his idea was probably wise.

POV CHANGE

When Hollie woke up, she thought at first that maybe she was dreaming.

"Draco…there's two of you…" she mumbled, speaking to Lucius, who, in this time, looked almost exactly like his son.

"Luce, why is she calling you Draco? And who the hell did you give permission to use the duplication spell on you?" Severus popped up, seeming a little put out that his friend had done something that big without telling him. The duplication spell was very advanced magic, after all, and currently classified as Dark magic, so it couldn't have been done on Hogwarts grounds.

"I didn't do the blasted spell, Sev. If someone else did, it wasn't with my permission. As for why she's calling me Draco, haven't the foggiest." The tall blonde sneered, moving his wand to hover over his look-alike as the other began stirring, he wasn't entirely surprised when he found himself looking into gray-blue eyes much like his own.

"Father. Shit," was all that Draco could think of to say. Lucius' eyes widened, and Severus chuckled. All of a sudden he had a very good idea of what was going on here. This boy, rather than being Lucius, was Lucius' son, and had clearly used some sort of Dark magic to travel back in time, since it definitely wasn't possible using Light magic. Just as Lucius raised his wand to curse the boy, not knowing what he meant by calling him father, Severus stayed his hand.

"Luce. Think for a second. He looks just like you, and he wasn't hiding anything when he called you father. I think this is for real…I certainly can't find any deceit in him using occlumency!"

"No deceit? Then he's definitely no son of mine!" Draco's eyes widened, and a slight look of hurt flashed across his face before being replaced by the mask of indifference that he had perfected over his entire life.

Hollie, on the other hand, couldn't care less about being indifferent. She had now figured out what was going on, and her face clearly showed her anger at the elder Malfoy as she sat up.

"You stuck up, overly-fashion conscious, pureblood pig!" She screeched, pissed off that he dared hurt Draco. Not even she did that…she just shrunk his overly large ego from time to time.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" he asked, one blonde eyebrow arched in fascination. This girl clearly had something to say, and who was he to stand in her way? But he wasn't going to let her just sit there and call him a pig. That, after all, wasn't true.

As Hollie began berating Lucius, the others ran up in time to see Draco holding Hollie back, and Severus holding Lucius back as the two screamed, ranted, and tried to get at each other with unrelenting enthusiasm.

POV CHANGE

Joe tapped his fingers impatiently, as he sat next to the time machine, waiting for Courtney to get back with food. He was worried that something might go wrong, since the machine hadn't been designed to transport that many people through time. What if they didn't end up where they were supposed to be? He made a mental note to himself that before they did a second experiment, they needed to invent some sort of method of communication that would work in both times to keep them in touch.

At least Ashley was still here. But he really wouldn't be able to forgive himself for letting the girls go if something went wrong. Just then, a loud scream rang out from the hall that led to the Ravenclaw common room. Momentarily forgetting that he was supposed to be guarding the time machine, he ran towards the portrait, bolting out into the hallway, not noticing as a cloaked figure slid behind him and into the common room, a half-smile upon its shadowed face. His eyes were trapped instead by the body on the floor not ten feet away.