Disclaimer : Once again, I do not own Harry Potter. Do you really think I'd bother with this if I did ?
A/N : Thanks to the people who reviewed Chapter 1. Please do the same for this chapter. Thanks
Chapter 2:
James and Lily were still feeling slightly dizzy and Lily's hand still hurt from where the crystals had digged into her skin, leaving two bright red cuts on her hand. She took the crystals and put them back into the cream box, careful not to hold them too tightly just in case.
As soon as she had finished arranging the crystals neatly in their original form, James snatched the box from her and turned it upside down causing the three stones and the parchment to fall out. He quickly picked them up before Lily saw what he had just done. Unfortunately he was too slow.
Lily turned to glare at James who was sitting beside her. What was the need of emptying the box when she had just spent years putting everything in it ? He gave her an apologetic look which Lily found in her heart to accept but she still kicked him hard with her foot.
As James put the content back in the box he noticed the writing on the piece of parchment had disappeared completely. He looked on the other side. There was nothing there so he stuffed it back into the box thinking it was no big deal. There were more important matters he had to deal with. Food.
As James did this, Lily studied his face and guessed they were both thinking the same thoughts; What had just happened? Where were they ? Who was this girl and why had they never seen her before ?
The 'Lily look alike' sat in the corner of the room and because she was sitting in a position in which she could not see Lily and James unless she turned, she obviously hadn't noticed them yet.
Whilst James rummaged in his bag for something to eat, Lily got up and walked over to talk to the girl sitting in the corner. She looked a lot like herself though she had more freckles and brown eyes instead of green.
"Excuse me, are you new here ? What's your name ?" Lily asked her.
"Me ? Nope I've been at Hogwarts for nearly six years. I'm Ginny Weasley by the way. Are you new here because I've never seen you around either, what's your name ?"
"Lily Evans. That's James Potter over there" said Lily, indicating James.
Ginny just stared at Lily, saying nothing.
"We're in our seventh year now and I don't think I've seen you before either. That's strange" continued Lily, slightly puzzled to why Ginny was staring at her awkwardly.
"Yup. That sure is strange," came Ginny's reply. "This isn't a joke is it ?" she asked.
"Er...no. Why do you ask and why are you staring at me like that ?" asked Lily who felt Ginny knew a lot that she didn't.
Ginny turned to look at James who was so engrossed in his chocolates that he was hardly paying any attention to the conversation.
"He looks just like Harry" said Ginny to herself.
"Who's Harry?"
"You don't know him...yet. If only I could take you to Dumbledore." she replied, again talking more to herself than to Lily.
Lily thought this was a great idea. He's the one who started all of this, so he should help them and end it.
"Why don't you take us to Dumbledore then?" she asked.
"I would, but he's dead."
"Wha-"
"Can't you shut up for a minute?" Ginny cut across her. Feeling guilty that she had just spoken rudely to Harry's future parents she apologised at once.
"There is a way, I guess. It might be difficult. I could ask the others to help.." continued Ginny.
"You could also start by telling me what you're talking about." suggested Lily. But before she could ask for a reply Ginny had hurried out of the common room with a sudden thought. She called out, " Wait there, I'll be back in a sec." And with that she was gone.
James had finally finished eating and as he had only payed attention to parts of the conversation he had no idea what had happened. He walked over to Lily who was sitting in an armchair with her head in her hands, with a peculiar expression on her face. He knew that look. She was definitely angry. Probably annoyed with the other girl. One thing was for sure, Lily Evans hated not knowing things. She was always top of the class and was used to others asking her the questions. Not her begging others to tell her something.
To simplify it, her mood wasn't a good one. James didn't know what to do. Should he ask her what's wrong, or would that make her mood worse ? By the time he had decided, Ginny had returned to the common room along with a tall, round faced boy by her side.
"Back again!" she called, running towards both of them. Lily stood up. "Well, I don't know how but you've come to the future," Ginny spoke rather quickly ignoring James' interruptions of 'wow'. "Anyway, You can't talk to Dumbledore obviously but you can speak to his portrait in the Headmaster's office !" The problem is getting you both in there. "So Neville and I will have to cause some sort of diversion, allowing you some time to speak to Professor Dumbledore!" said Ginny expecting an appreciative reaction.
"That's all a great idea, but what do you mean Dumbledore's dead ?" Lily asked, instead.
Ginny's face changed from an optimistic, cheerful one to an upsetting and mournful face. She looked at Lily and replied, "Well, everything has changed in our time. Voldemort's back in power, he has more more followers now to torture us all. Life in our time is pretty harsh. So Dumbledore was killed last year by one of the teachers here who's a death eater and now the headmaster here, the greasy git." Anger appeared in her face as she spoke.
"Do we know him?" asked Lily who was shocked. Dumbledore's death seemed impossible.
"I doubt it. His name is Snape. Severus Snape." came the answer. Lily let out a sharp gasp when she heard this. Her eyes were swelling up with tears , she couldn't hold them in and before she knew it, they were strolling down her pale face like a stream of water and she sat back down on the armchair. Once again, unhappy, confused and in shock.
James was also quite surprised. He had always hated Snape, from the day he met him on the Hogwarts express, he had hated him. He also knew that there was a good chance of him going to the dark side, after all he hung around with all the 'death eaters to be'. But Lily had liked him, trusted him and they had been best friends until Snape had called her a mudblood which she believed was an accident. Was it the same Severus, that Lily knew ?
James went and sat on the edge of Lily's chair and put his arms around her, trying to be friendly, but she pushed him away asking him to leave.
An hour had passed when Lily had finally pulled herself together. She saw Ginny, James and Neville on the other side of the common room, talking quietly amongst themselves. They were planning how they were to cause the diversion.
Lily went over to join them and contributed to the suggestions being made. That's when James remembered that he had his bag with him. In his bag he always kept the Marauders' Map, his precious invisibility cloak and the latest pranks and tricks he had invented with Sirius, to try on people.
From his bag he took out a hand sized wooden box. He murmured a spell under his breath and tapped the box with his wand. At that moment the box opened, revealing strange looking items. The box was tiny but when James put his hand in, his whole arm managed to fit in. He shuffled things around searching for something in the box and eventually pulled out three packets of green seeds.
They looked at the packets awkwardly. How would seeds help them ? Ginny however knew this was probably a strange, but good idea as her twin brothers were always coming up with weird inventions, that always came handy in some way. She guessed that James enjoyed doing the similar thing.
"This," He told them, picking up the packets and smiling, "is quicksand. We'll need to put water in it and simply spill it on the corridor you wish to attack. The seeds will turn to quicksand and spread. It will camouflage into the floor, so nobody will even notice it's there until they walk over it!" He finished proudly.
"How will we take everyone out of the quicksand?" asked Neville, speaking for the first time.
"Add a few drops of water and the quicksand will turn back to green seeds, it's completely spell proof so only we will know how to stop it."
James looked up to see three smiling faces nodding in agreement. Even Lily seemed impressed with the idea, so naturally, this had made James' day.
"Come on, we should do this and get it done with quickly as possible. Most people will still be in the great hall for dinner, so we could do it now." said Ginny, "We'll have to make sure nobody sees us, or we can get in big trouble. Or worse, they would find you two and trust me, you do not want to draw attention to yourselves."
Then James remembered something else. The Marauders Map and his invisibility cloak. He took them out of his bag and showed his two of his most prized possessions to the the others. Normally if he had shown someone they would've been quite surprised, but Ginny and Neville weren't.
"This map shows where everyone in Hogwarts is! It'll probably come to use."
"We know, we've seen and used the map and your invisibility cloak before, but yes, it will be very useful." came Ginny's reply.
James was puzzled. They might have seen an invisibility cloak before, even though they were extremely rare, but how had they seen the map ? Only the Marauders had ever used it.
Neville saw his puzzled face and told him that Dumbledore would explain everything to them once they're there.
Ginny hid James' and Lily's belongings and the crystals in case someone else came into the room while they were gone. With the map in James' hands, the seeds in a plastic container with Lily and the cloak draped over the two of them, they left the common room, following Neville and Ginny.
On their way, Lily and James saw the same portraits they were used to, hanging on the walls in a disorderly fashion and greeting them as they passed. The map told them that Snape was just around the corner so Neville and Ginny were pulled under the cloak. They had to crouch down so the cloak covered their feet as well. They heard Snape say the password of the Headmaster's office and remembered it.
They had to wait until Snape had left his office and when he had finally come out and was walking past them, Lily had to stop herself from calling out his name. He had the same features since she had last seen him a couple of days ago, though now it seemed like years had gone by since they had left their time, which in a way was true.
When Snape was gone and the coast was clear, Neville and Ginny set out the camouflaged quicksand and then followed Lily and James, who had headed for the gargoyles guarding the entrance to the office. Lily said the password and the gargoyle sprang to life and jumped aside.
The four of them ran up the spiral staircase and opened the office door. Lily used her wand for light as they entered the silent office.
It was a beautiful circular room with the Headmaster's desk in the middle. They walked farther into the room and looked up at the walls behind the desk.
The patched and ragged Sorting Hat sat in the corner of a shelf, not to be used till next term. Next to it was a glass case that contained a magnificent silver sword with large rubies in the handle. It was the sword that had once belonged to Godric Gryffindor, the founder of their house.
The room was lined with portraits of previous Headmasters and Mistresses of Hogwarts, some asleep and some following them with their eyes as they walked around the office.
There was no need to search for the portrait they were looking for as Dumbledore's picture was the largest there and hung in the centre, higher than the rest.
They looked up to see Dumbledore's cheerful face smiling down at them, his eyes twinkling.