Disclaimer: In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for JK Rowling (So, yes, that means I'm not her...lol).
A/N: Thanks to the following reviewers!!: Kurinoone, harryismyhomeboy, Prince Jonathan's Lover, Mouse and Stupid Productions, buffalo1fromSalem, darkmarkgirl, Charmed Ravenclaw, PrincessKiri14, love-tear-perish, Ellen-D, lonelyaddict, CzechChicka, wishesanddreams, Anonymous, laxrules18, xCHALLEANNEx, warm summer days, PSTurner, Isolde Eris, and Lady Potter of Tortall. You guys are simply amazing! I wish I had enough time to go through and reply to each of your reviews, but I have so much going on that I hardly find time to update this as often as I would like.
So, last time I know I said that I would be able to get this chapter done and up faster than the last one, but sadly I think this one took me a bit longer. Sorry guys! Thanks for sticking with me!
Oh, and for all of you who live in America or are American citizens, HAPPY THANKSGIVING on Thursday! I can't wait to be able to stuff myself with turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy...yum. Oh, and you can't forget my mom's homemade apple pie! Anyways, just have a good thankful day!
I hope you enjoy this chapter!
OOO
Chapter 14:
The Christmas holidays had finally come to an end and the students of Hogwarts were, once again, thrust back into their monotone schedules and classes with teachers who loaded homework down on them. Nonetheless, excitement seemed to radiate throughout the school, mostly do to the fact that Gryffindor would be playing Slytherin in a week's time. Corridors and time between classes were filled with taunts between the two rival houses and a small third year Gryffindor had even landed in the hospital wing after getting in a duel with the Slytherin keeper. McGonagall had threatened to suspend the Slytherin from playing in the match, but Snape had somehow gotten him off the hook.
Lily spent most of her evenings with Hermione as James, Harry, Ron, and even Ginny were practicing Quidditch every hour of the night leading up to the big game. The Gryffindor team always trudged into the common room, red-faced and tired at around 8:30 every night.
However, on a rare night where Harry had called off practice because of a heavy rainfall, the common room was unusually filled and quite noisy. Ginny seemed to be trying to motivate the team with loud jokes and very accurate impersonations of the two Slytherin beaters. Lily watched amusedly as Harry appeared to be taking the moment to laugh at Ginny and talk to her. Over the holidays Lily had figured out that the two liked each other. And then, with the recent break up of Ginny with Dean Thomas, Lily watched as Harry would walk with her in between classes talking about 'Quidditch tactics'.
The couch Lily and Hermione were currently sitting in dipped down slightly as James plopped himself down beside her. "They look a lot like us, don't they?" he asked humorously, pointing with his finger towards Ginny and Harry.
"Except you're usually the one being loud and obnoxious and I'm usually telling you off," Lily replied.
Hermione and James laughed. "Harry is the worst with girls," Hermione commented, closing her book with a snap.
James smiled. "He can't be! He has my genes! Here, watch this," James said. Hermione and Lily shared anxious looks wondering what James was going to do.
"Oi, Harry!" he called out loudly. Even Ginny stopped her fun to listen to who had yelled.
Harry turned and looked over at their couch. "Yeah?"
"You going to Hogsmeade this weekend?"
Lily put her head in her hands. Meanwhile, Harry looked at his father confusedly. "They're cancelled."
"Right, well if we did have one, would you be single?"
A couple of students sniggered quietly as Harry tried to fight down a blush as Romilda Vane jumped up and tried to cling onto Harry to claim him for her own. "What's it to you?"
"Oh nothing," James said, before turning to face Ginny. "Oi, Ginny!"
Ginny smiled easily. "Why are you yelling? I'm like two feet away from you!"
"Would you be single as well?" James asked. Lily and Hermione, embarrassed for him, tried to pull him down to get him to stop.
"No, I would not go with you, James," she stated jokingly, pushing her red hair out of her face.
James smile widened. "Well, since you won't go with me, and Harry doesn't have a date…" he nodded discreetly from Ginny to Harry clearly trying to give Harry a chance to make his move. However, the raven-haired boy awkwardly told the crowd he was tired and hastily made his way upstairs.
"You're right," James began, as the door to the boys' dormitory snapped shut, "he is rubbish."
A half enraged, half amused Ginny marched up to James and shoved her finger in his chest, causing him to topple over the back of the couch. "You're such a prat!" she said, plopping down beside Hermione.
Rubbing his ribs where the girl had poked him, James leaned comfortably back into the couch. "Why do redheads always have a knack of calling me names?" he asked in a tone of mock sadness.
"Because we're the only ones who will slap you down back into your place," Lily answered, winking at Ginny.
"Fine, I see how it is."
"You just caused Harry to retire to his room out of embarrassment and now he'll probably never get the courage to ask me out, so forgive me for hating you," Ginny explained simply. Identical grins spread across Lily's and James' face, Hermione simply looked bored at this pronouncement as if she'd already heard it years ago.
"I knew it!" Lily exclaimed, leaning over James excitedly to peer at Ginny who didn't look in the least bit embarrassed at what she'd just said.
Although James was happy at figuring out he'd been right as well in knowing something was up between Ginny and Harry, he wasn't much for squealing girl talk. He rolled his eyes as Ginny, Hermione, and Lily discussed all the possibly ways that Harry could possibly ask Ginny out as the two girls reassured Ginny that of course Harry liked her and was just too shy to do anything about it.
"Women…" James muttered quietly to himself.
OOO
"Oh, Gryffindor appears to be in possession of the Quaffle. Did you know that Quaffles used to be filled with fairy dust and—"
"Miss Lovegood, kindly comment on the game," McGonagall's voice broke through the loud speaker.
"Oh, right, sorry Professor," Luna's dreamy voice said, her large blue eyes now following Ginny as she streaked down the pitch towards the Slytherin end.
James swerved away from a Bludger, dodged a Slytherin player, and was now in an open spot where Ginny could pass the Quaffle to him and Gryffindor could score, tying the game. As if she could read his mind, Ginny looked to her left seeing James and quickly passed it. Catching by the tips of his fingers, James quickly turned and threw it. The Gryffindor spectators erupted into cheers as James grinned confidently, high-fiving Ginny.
"…but they finally outlawed the use of the dust realizing that it actually made the players a bit light headed—oh, did someone score?"
Whose ever idea it was to get Luna Lovegood to do the commentating must have been befuddled. James looked over towards the teacher stand where Luna stood with the megaphone and saw McGonagall watching the blonde haired girl wearily, as if she didn't even know how Luna had ended up there.
"Oh, look at Harry go. I hope he's not doing one of those Wonky Feints because there was a study shown that the reason players go into fake dives like that is because a Confudy Budder is pulling them downwards at an alarming speed…" Luna was saying, but no one was paying attention to her. Even the players on the pitch had stopped to watch Harry dive straight towards the middle of the pitch, the Slytherin seeker hot on his heels.
"Yes!" James exclaimed loudly. Harry pulled his broom upwards sharply, his fist thrust into the air and a triumphant look on his face.
McGonagall took the megaphone from Luna. "Gryffindor wins!" She cried hysterically, jumping up and down in a very un-McGonagall-ish fashion.
The team landed in a large mass, everyone clapping Harry on the back as the crowd began making their way onto the pitch. Lily and Hermione ran towards the team, their Gryffindor colored scarves flying madly behind them in the wind.
"Well done, James!" the two girls cried. Lily hugged him tightly, realizing that she had never congratulated him on a game before back in their time.
And it appeared that Lily and James weren't the only ones sharing a friendly moment. Some people in the crowd whistled loudly as Ginny threw her arms around Harry and kissed him right in the middle of everyone. Lily and James smiled at each other as Hermione beamed. Ron, on the other hand, stiffened visibly and looked torn on what to do. He clearly wanted to go pull his best mate off his little sister, but at the same time he didn't.
Harry's green eyes came up and quickly found Ron. In the midst of all the noise Ron stiffly nodded, as if his head was going against his better judgment.
"Well," James said happily, "that was certainly unexpected."
OOO
Harry strolled into the dormitory later that night. Dean, still sour that Harry had gotten together with his ex-girlfriend, simply looked away from the door and got into bed, drawing the curtains around it forcefully.
"Hey, lover-boy," James called out from his spot on the floor. Ron groaned, flinching slightly.
Despite himself, Harry grinned widely and walked over towards them. "What's up?"
"We could ask you the same question," James retorted, intentionally trying to humiliate him.
Ron threw his pillow at Harry. "No, please, we really don't need to know what you and my sister have been up to."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Good. Because I'm not sure I want to tell you."
There was a split second of silence before… "What did you do?" Ron blurted out, the tips of his ears reddening.
"Calm down," Harry replied, laughing, "I was just messing with you."
"You're funny, Harry, bloody hilarious."
Harry smiled, as if he were unable to do anything else, and began shifting through his trunk, finally pulling out two things that made James' grin mischievously: The Marauder's Map and the Invisibility Cloak.
"I'm going down to the kitchens," he replied, after he closed his trunk again. "I missed dinner."
A perfect opportunity had just fallen straight into James' hands. What a better way to get to spend time with Harry. "I'll come!" James said at once, jumping up from his game of Wizard's Chess.
"Alright," Harry said, "Ron, you coming?"
Ron shook his head, looking longingly at the cloak. "Can't. Patrol duties tonight with Hermione."
"Have fun," James said before following his son out the door.
OOO
As Harry and James sat across from each other at a small table down in the kitchens, James couldn't help but realize how little time he had really spent with his son. Although, 'son' wasn't really the right word; well, of course Harry was a combination of his and Lily's DNA, but it just felt weird. After all, James was the same age as Harry and felt hardly ready to be considered a dad. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but feel a desire to learn everything about him.
A small house elf, with large tennis ball sized eyeballs and so many hats on his head the he looked oddly proportioned, approached the two young men with a tray lined with a variety of foods.
"Dobby is so glad to see Harry Potter again. And now, there's two Harry Potters," the elf named Dobby said, pointing to Harry and James clearly pointing out the striking resemblance between the two of them.
"Hey Dobby," Harry smiled, taking the tray from the elf and placing it on the table himself. "Nice socks," he commented. James looked down and had to stifle a laugh. The elf's socks were neon green with flashing lightening bolts dotted all over the soft fabric.
"Dobby got them especially to remember Harry Potter, sir," Dobby replied, grinning from overlarge ear to overlarge ear. With a bow and a hearty farewell, the house elf backed away leaving Harry and James in silence once again.
"So," James began as Harry dug into his treacle tart, "I hope you've been putting my invisibility cloak and map to good use."
Harry grinned slightly, fingering the light silvery material lying across his lap. "Depends on what you define 'good use' as."
James laughed. "Brilliant. Just, don't tell Lily I'm encouraging you."
A look of realization spread throughout Harry's emerald eyes, as if he'd just remembered something that he had been meaning to ask James. "Hey," he began, "how'd you get on good terms with her?" He asked the question as if it held no real importance to him whatsoever, but James could easily detect the eagerness in his tone of voice.
"Who said I was ever on bad terms with her?" James asked innocently. Harry rose his eyebrows. "Sirius and Remus shared stories with you, didn't they?"
Underneath the table, Harry shifted his feet uncomfortably, but a grin broke out across his face nonetheless. "Well, no actually. Last year I broke into Snape's thoughts he'd stored in a pensieve. Let's just say that I know mum…er…Lily didn't quite think you were such a hot shot."
This conversation was getting interesting. "Just out of curiosity, what was the memory? Snivellus could have tampered with it."
"It wasn't tampered with. Sirius and Remus told me that you had a tendency to act like an idiot when around her, but said you eventually grew out of it during seventh year."
James scowled at hearing that his friends had told his son he'd been an idiot. "Merlin, what great friends I have," he said sarcastically. "Wait…so I definitely get together with Lily then?" he asked suddenly.
Harry smirked. "I'm here now, aren't I?"
"Oh, right." James chuckled, having momentarily forgotten about that small little factor. Man, he couldn't wait for seventh year…if they ever found their way back again. James was torn. Of course he missed his old time, after all that's where he belonged, when all of his friends were still alive and united; however, he also liked it here where Lily actually talked to him and hugged him, not to mention having met Harry. What would happen when him and Lily finally managed to return? Most likely—since they wouldn't be able to remember anything anyways—Lily would go back to hating his guts and James would go back to bullying Snape and pranking the Slytherins. Is that what he really wanted?
But there was a whole other factor that also played into this huge dilemma. Voldemort. He had already tried doing them in once since they had arrived, and if James knew anything about Voldemort it was that he wouldn't give up. He wanted--no--he needed Harry dead. With their arrival into the future, Harry was in even more danger than he ever was when he was without parents.
"You alright?" Harry asked, apparently noticing that fact that James had been staring blankly at the wall for the past five minutes as he sorted through his thoughts.
"Yeah," he replied, trying to regain his jolliness. This was his first time being completely alone with Harry and he didn't want to ruin it by worrying him.
Although, James didn't know that Harry had tried this tactic plenty of times before. "So, am I to guess that you always stare at walls as if they challenged you to a staring contest?" Harry asked casually.
Busted. James looked at Harry closely. "It's just weird, you know? I would have thought Voldemort would have tried something else by now." He tried to voice his thoughts calmly, as if he hadn't spent a lot of time contemplating them.
Harry nodded. "He likes to play games like that. I think he enjoys being unpredictable."
"Well," James began, "he must not be totally unpredictable if you've been able to fight him and survive six times now."
"Yeah, well," Harry shrugged it off, trying to be modest. That was probably the main difference between the two of them; their personalities. While James had grown up as an only child with two very well off parents, Harry had grown up being bullied by his beast of a cousin, Dudley.
"Anyways, how about that Quidditch game, yeah?"
The two spent the rest of time talking about typical guy stuff, including their childhoods and funny stories that had occurred in their life times. It was only until a very grumpy house elf, who claimed he would tell the Headmaster the two had been out of bed three hours past curfew, that Harry and James actually got up and left.
They moved throughout the castle and back up to the Gryffindor corridor huddled underneath the Invisibility Cloak. Both of them had to admit that it was easier with two people who were within a centimeter of each other's heights rather than the usual three or four people they had to hide with the cloak.
Two floors from their destination, Harry suddenly held out his hand causing James to stop. He held the Marauder's Map closer to his face, staring at a spot on the map and then to a place further down the hall. "Come on," he muttered quietly, pulling James along behind him.
As they approached the spot Harry had seen on the map, whispers of two voices drifted out from behind a closed door of an empty classroom. Curiosity overtook both boys' instincts and they moved closer, standing right outside the door, their ears pressed silently against the cool surface.
"…you don't know what you're talking about," an agitated voice said. Despite the hysterical tone of the person, there was no mistaking who that voice belonged to.
"Malfoy…" Harry breathed, pressing his ear closer, if that was possible, to the door.
Footsteps walked across the floor as a second person inside the room seemed to approach Draco Malfoy. "You're racing time now, Draco. The longer it takes you to do this plan of yours the better chance they have of escaping."
James's eyes widened from behind his glasses. His fists clenched. Snape. What was he playing at? Hadn't he saved them? And now it sounded like he wanted to help Malfoy with something that couldn't be anything good.
"Like I don't know that," retorted Malfoy coldly.
Not being put out by Draco's cool, Snape persisted. "If you could just share with me what you're doing—"
"—It's none of your business," Malfoy spat back. "He gave me this job, and now it's more important than ever. He believes in me; I don't need you."
"Stop acting like a child, Draco—"
"Stop acting like you're the boss of me. I know what I have to do and it will work. And besides, it's not like they'll be able to leave anyway. I'm almost always occupying…" Malfoy cut off, aware that he'd almost just let part of his plan slip to Snape, who he desperately didn't want to hear.
Unfortunately, Snape had caught it. "What?"
Draco jumped back into the playing field, overlooking his mistake at once and immediately regaining his posture. "You think you're so smart, playing both sides, but I don't need your help. You just want all the glory. I've heard stories; not all of our kind believe you're little double agent act. You want to regain their trust by carrying out my order that the Dark Lord gave me," Malfoy's voice had raised above a whisper and Harry and James could both hear Snape trying to hush his student.
"Dear Aunt Bellatrix planting lies in your head, Draco? I have enough of his blessing, you on the other hand, do not. If you mess this up—"
"—I won't!" Draco exclaimed. Loud stomps of footprints approached the door and Harry and James quickly moved to the side to avoid being smashed into. Within seconds, Malfoy emerged, his cheeks a tint of red due to the slight argument, and large purple bags gathered around his eyes and his skin held a permanent grey tinge, as if he hadn't eaten in weeks.
Snape followed out soon after and he stalked down the corridor, his long black robes trailing out behind him.
Something evil was on the move, and from the sounds of it, it was happening within Hogwarts' very walls. Snape was right; it was a race against time. Now more than ever, James was positive that he and Lily needed to get out of this decade as soon as possible.
OOO
Dun dun dunn! The race is on! Will Malfoy finish his plan first, or will Lily and James finally get back to their old time first? Well, that's for me to know and you to find out! lol
Thanks for reading everyone! I appreciate it so much! Hopefully, I'll be able to update sooner than what I have been. Thanks again for sticking with me! Please review!
--HeyLookTheSnitch