Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: To the two reviewers that inquired about Harry's memory: Yes, he will get it back, but not for quite some time. Hopefully, this chapter will clear several things up regarding how Harry came to be at Hogwarts.
As Harry and James made their way to the Headmaster's office, James proved himself very capable of holding up a conversation all by himself. He began with what Dumbledore would say before moving on to how much fun he would have with the Potters over the summer before finally coming up to the subject of Quidditch. Harry was coming to realize that James could go on about the sport for hours on end, possibly without needing to take a breath, and was content to let him ramble on. Eventually, however, his one-sided conversation came to a close as they approached the Headmaster's office.
"Did Professor Dumbledore tell you the password?" James inquired.
"No, he didn't."
Luckily, they did not have to stand around for very long before the statue moved to permit the exit of none other than Severus Snape.
"Get your wand ready, Harry," James instructed mockingly. "We'll have to Scourgify the headmaster's office thirty times over to get rid of all the grease."
Harry chuckled but inwardly thought He's not that bad...
"Oh very funny, Potter," Snape drawled back. "But one would think that after nearly six years of constantly insulting me, you would have come up with something better by now. Or are you simply bringing the old ones back to show off to your new sidekick."
James made to take a lunge at Snape. It was at this moment that Dumbledore chose to display his excellent timing causing James to shift the direction of his fist so that it seemed as though he simply had a scratch on his back.
"Is there anything else I can help you with, Mr. Snape?" he asked politely.
"No, sir," Snape replied before muttering under his breath "Not as though you did much helping anyway." Harry looked to Dumbledore and James to see their reactions to this comment, but James was looking pointedly in the other direction and if Dumbledore heard, he did not show it.
"Good evening to you, then. Mr. Potter, both of you, if would please follow me to my office."
They entered through the office and Dumbledore motioned for them to have a seat as he himself sat in a rather large, ornate armchair on the opposite side of the desk. "Tea?"
"No, thank you, sir."
"I believe you had some questions for me. However, before I answer them, I have one quick question for Harry of my own."
"Yes, sir?"
"I have spent a large portion of my afternoon developing theories as to how you came to be here. I was merely wondering if you had remembered anything else that might help me."
"No, sir," Harry replied with a frown. "Nothing. But do you have any ideas?"
"Several, actually. The most likely one involving time travel."
"Really? Time travel?" James asked.
"Yes. The hourglass figures you described to me sounded very much like Time Turners. They are devices used to go backward in time. The only room in existence that I know of that would house more than a handful of these devices is in the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic. It could be that the number of Time Turners destroyed when you crashed against the shelf is equal to the number of years that you have come backward in time."
"But sir, that doesn't make any sense," James countered. "You said the Ministry of Magic. That's all the way in London. He was found just outside the Forbidden Forest."
"Yes, that is so. The Ministry has several wards around it to prevent attack and infiltration. The Department of Mysteries has double the amount of the rest of the Ministry. There are several things in that branch of the government that we would prefer to keep secret. One of these wards is keyed to activate if time travel is attempting inside of it. When the person traveling through time reaches their destination in time, the ward is set to transport them to a place where they are in more danger than they are a danger to the Ministry. The Forbidden Forest would be such a place."
"That makes sense," Harry said. "But it doesn't explain my memory loss. Madam Pomfrey tried everything she could so it can't be a simple 'I bumped my head.'"
"Right you are. I am no Unspeakable, but I am under the impression that there is another ward that works much like the Memory Charm, only it is much more powerful. It too would activate when you traveled through time. Therefore, should the person traveling time in the Ministry were to survive the Forest, they're memory of what they were supposed to be doing would have been erased."
"Sir, sometimes when I look at certain people or places in the castle, I feel somewhat familiar with them. If my memory has completely been erased, how is that possible?" Harry asked.
"Perhaps 'erased' was a bad choice of word. 'Locked away' probably would have been more appropriate. You see, it's impossible to truly erase someone's memory. It can be relocated by means such as a Penseive, or it can be locked away, by means of a Memory Charm or something to that effect. You still familiar with those places and people, even though you do not remember them, because your memories are still in your head. They are just in a place so deep in your mind that you are unable to find them."
"Well, then, there's still a chance to get them back, right!"
"Yes and no, Harry. A very accomplished Legilimens, such as myself, could go into your mind to retrieve your memories. However, all that your mind would go through in the process would cause it to become dysfunctional. It's hardly worth it at all."
"Oh."
"Sir," James began carefully. "I was just thinking about the similarities between me and Harry and I though, well, I wondered, er, how far in the future do think he came from?"
Dumbledore gazed at James for a moment, his eyes twinkling before he said, "I'm afraid that without Harry's memory, there is no way to be sure of that. I believe it would be safe to say that he is your future son, though."
Both boys eyes grew as big as Quaffles at this new information.
"Well, now I know that Evans won't refuse me forever," James eventually said with a grin.
Had Harry been drinking the tea that Dumbledore had offered, he would have choked on it. "That's a bit of a big assumption."
Before James could retort back, Dumbledore interrupted. "I hope that it goes without saying but, alas, I will say it anyway: The fewer who know about the future, the better. Therefore, I must ask you not to reveal anything about this conference to anyone. Now, I believe that you had some questions for me. If I am not very much mistaken, one of them was regarding where Harry will be for the summer."
Both boys nodded their agreement.
"More specifically, you wondered if Harry could accompany you to your home for holidays, correct James?"
"Yes, Professor."
"Would you like to go with him, Harry?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very well, you are related after all, and you seem to get along rather well. I must speak with your parents first. I will send them an owl shortly asking them to meet tomorrow evening after dinner. If you would please return to my office at that time. I think it would be best if we told them the truth."
"What about after holidays?" James asked. "Will he be able come to Hogwarts with me?"
Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes, that would be the most logical course of action. However, we have no test scores of yours, so you will be tested for your O.W.L.s at some point on the summer. For this reason, I would advise you spending ample study time wherever you may be staying. If you pass, you will go along to sixth year. If, my some stroke of misfortune, you fail, you will be placed in fifth year. Fair enough?"
"Yes, sir." Harry nodded.
"Very well, I will be seeing you all tomorrow." Dumbledore stood up with them and walked them to the door and down the statue. "Good night, boys."
"Good night, Professor."
"Good night."
The Potters began to walk down the corridor before Harry remembered something else he had forgotten to ask. "Oh! Professor! I almost forgot. I have one more question."
"Yes, you do seem to be full of them," Dumbledore replied, looking highly amused.
"I just wondered where I'm sleeping tonight. I didn't know if I should go back to the hospital wing or if there was somewhere else I should go."
"I believe the Gryffindor dormitories would be quite comfortable for you. Last time I checked, there was a spare bed in the fifth year dormitories."
"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks!" Harry called as he caught up with James.
"Wow. That was some heavy stuff," James commented as they began making their way to Gryffindor.
"No kidding," Harry agreed.
"Can't wait to tell Sirius and Remus! Can you imagine the look on they're faces?! Ha!"
"But Dumbledore said we shouldn't tell anyone," Harry countered.
"Oh, they don't count," James said matter-of-factly.
"Wonder what they'd say to that," Harry teased and James laughed.
Once again, James showed is ability to keep up a conversation without help from any other parties. Not that Harry minded. It gave him the opportunity to think about all that he had just found out without being interrupted. In the last thirty minutes, he had not only found out that he was from the future, but that one of the few people he had met in this time was probably his dad.
That was one thing that confused him. He had not been lying about the sense of familiarity he felt toward some people. The odd thing was, he didn't feel any for James. He did for Sirius, somewhat for Remus, and quite a bit for Severus Snape, but the man that was supposedly his future father, he did not feel familiar with at all. It didn't make any sense. He felt no familiarity with his dad, but he felt the most familiarity with the person his dad hated.
"Turnips," James said suddenly, breaking Harry out of his inner monologue.
"What?" he was about to ask, but was cut short by a portrait of a rather vast woman swung open to reveal a passageway. He followed James through the passageway and into a common room enshrouded in crimson carpet and furniture with gold trim.
"James! Harry! Over here!" they heard Remus call to them from a table on the corner of the room where he and Sirius were currently playing a game of Exploding Snap. James and Harry quickly joined their friends. There was a short, rather chubby boy that Harry had not met yet sitting with them.
"James," the boy said, looking rather alarmed. "Don't be alarmed, but you're standing right behind yourself."
"He's not me, you dolt!"
"But he looks just like..."
"He's my son!"
"Oh! Well, that makes more sense, then." James slapped him on the head as the other two burst out laughing.
"Prongs," Sirius began. "As happy as I am for you that you finally got laid, I hate to be the one to inform you that babies don't come out already being teenagers."
Everyone burst out laughing ,except for Peter.
"I don't get it," he frowned. Unfortunately for him, that only made the other four laugh even harder. "Whatever. I'm going to bed."
Harry yawned. "I think I'm going to sleep."
"Alright, g'night."
After they had gone upstairs, Sirius turned to James. "So what really happened in Dumbledore's office?"
James spent the next twenty minutes explaining everything that Dumbledore had said. By the time he was done, both of the other boys had abandoned their game. A full five minutes after James had finished explaining everything, they were still staring wide eyed into space.
"You know, my mother always told me that if you hold your face in one position for long enough, it'll get stuck that way," James said absently as he flipped through his Transfiguration textbook. When that didn't work, he added, "By the way, Padfoot, you're drooling," without ever looking up from his book.
This remark pulled them out of their stupor as Padfoot smacked himself on the face to get rid of the non-existent drool and Remus turned to smirk at him.
"Always out to prove why he's the dog."
"You were serious about him being your son then?" Sirius asked, still dumbfounded and ignoring Remus's remark.
"Yep."
"So, we've definitely got a fifth Marauder to initiate."
"You sure he's the pranking type?" James asked.
"Well, neither is Moony here, but he's still invaluable to the cause."
'The cause,' Moony mouthed to himself, shaking his head."Not that I mind, but it took you guys ages to become Animagus. We've only got two years left of school. Even if he stays here for that long and assuming he agrees to join the Marauders, how are you planning on doing it before we graduate?"
"Oh, that won't be the problem. You see, the first time around, when we were making the potion for ourselves, we mostly had to guess and check. This time around, we already know what we're doing, so it should only take a few months," James explained.
"Where did you get all the ingredients from?"
"Nicked 'em," they replied in unison.
"I should have known."
"Only this time we should make it more fun," James said thoughtfully. "We should nick 'em from ol' Snivelly instead of Slughorn. That way we can prank the Slytherins and steal from one of them at the same time."
"Like killing two birds with one stone," Sirius grinned. "Only one problem: I'm not sure if they'll all still be fully functional with the several coats of grease they'll have on them."
And so, the rest of the night was spent abusing poor Severus Snape.