I'm only a guest in J. K. Rowling's world, but I'm having a great time!

Chapter 3

Harry appeared with a crack. He was standing in front of the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. He couldn't think of anywhere else to go. He had only ever lived at the Dursleys and Hogwarts, both not options at this time, and he was sure that Walburga Black would not appreciate his turning up at Grimmauld Place.

Harry decided to go and rent a room while he decided what to do next. Fortunately, he had stopped at Gringotts earlier yesterday, yesterday? before all this had occurred.

He ordered a beer—he didn't recognize the bartender, and wondered what Tom was doing—and sat down. Harry thought hard. Now what was he going to do? The money wasn't going to last forever.

The first order was to get a job. Harry didn't know that much about wizarding jobs—he'd been so determined to become an auror that he hadn't really paid attention to all those glossy pamphlets at the end of fifth year. Now, he was in even more trouble. He didn't have OWL results or a school record anymore—he figured that the only job he could easily obtain would be some sort of unskilled manual labor; dishwashing, for instance. Not that I haven't had enough practice with that, he thought sardonically. He slowly sipped his beer, staring at the counter.

All of the sudden, a scream pierced the air. Harry turned around.

Five Deatheaters had apparated in front of the Leaky Cauldron and were making their way in. Harry reacted immediately, yelling, "Expelliarmus!" disarming one Deatheater, and catching his wand. The Deatheaters, surprised by the sudden attack by a civilian, were slow to respond.

"Petrificus totalus!" he shouted, and another Deatheater went down. However, the remaining three Deatheaters were now ready and Harry had to duck as a nasty looking purple light streaked past him. The few people in the bar had fled, except for an old witch in the corner, who was shakily lifting her wand. She was hit by a red flash, and fell over. Harry hoped it wasn't a lethal spell.

As battle-trained as Harry was, he was months out of practice, and, due to his recent lifestyle, not in the best of health. And he was alone. Maybe he could take on two Deatheaters, but three? Harry ducked as another jet of green light sped by him. He wondered if he could get enough of a breathing space to apparate away. He shot another stunning spell, and saw another Deatheater go down, but at that moment, he was hit by a stream of red light, and fell over, immobilized. Harry held a cold pit in his stomach as he heard the footsteps of the Deatheater walking over. Had he really come back in time just to get himself killed fighting Deatheaters again?

He looked defiantly up at the Deatheater's slitted mask, waiting for death, when the Deatheater suddenly raised his head and fell over. He heard the sound of a petrifying spell—it appeared that the last Deatheater had been felled. Harry heard a new set of footsteps walking over.

"Hey there, are you all right?" a voice called out. The boots stopped by Harry's head.

"Yeah," Harry groaned and looked up at his rescuer. It was Lupin. He looked different. He seemed younger and more carefree than he ever had, even in the memory in the Pensieve. There was no grey in his hair, his clothing wasn't patched, and the way he held himself was more confident, almost cocky. He looked, well, if not exactly cool, at least as if he were a person who knew what was going on. He grinned at Harry.

"Remus Lupin." He said, holding out his hand to help Harry up. "It's good to know that not all the wizarding populace is a bunch of sheep. Who are you? You weren't at Hogwarts. Are you foreign?"

"Not, foreign, homeschooled." replied Harry. "Harry Peverell." He said, taking Remus's hand. "Thanks for rescuing me."

"Glad to be of service." Remus replied easily. "What do you say about having lunch and drinks after the Magical Law Enforcement arrives?"

Harry quickly agreed. There was no possibility of not spending as much time as possible with the people he loved until… Harry decided not to think about it.

...

They had lunch in a muggle pub, as the Leaky Cauldron's proprietor had fled, and business seemed to be done for the day. Both were hungry after the excitement, so at first, they ate in a businesslike fashion, without talking. However, after they had appeased their hunger, and ate and sipped slowly, Remus, after some preliminary small talk said,

"It isn't often I meet people openly against Voldemort. Most people just hunker down and hope that the Ministry will defeat him. What makes you oppose him?" his voice was studiously casual. Harry wondered why he would even ask that question. Wasn't it obvious?

He replied, "I'm against anyone who hates muggleborns or non-wizards. And maybe you people can't see it yet, but the Ministry won't win this fight. If nobody stops him, he'll destroy the wizarding world."

By saying this Harry realized that he had already decided what he was going to do. What he had done at the Leaky Cauldron had been instinct. He hadn't thought about whether or not he should attack the Deatheaters. But now Harry knew that even if he had had time to think, his decision would have been the same. It didn't matter where or when he was. He couldn't stand aside and let Voldemort hurt and kill people. He would let the time travel issue work itself out on his own. Harry wondered if the Order of the Phoenix had formed yet.

He looked at Remus to see his reaction. Remus looked surprised.

"Why do you think that the ministry will lose? They haven't done that badly so far."

"They haven't stopped all the disappearances or the killings either. The Deatheaters are getting stronger, and the Ministry doesn't have the backbone to attack them in force now, before they get too strong to defeat. They're terrified of Voldemort. Besides, I bet half the ministry are Deatheaters already—I reckon the purebloods think Voldemort's great."

Remus blinked. Then he nodded as if he had reached a decision. He leaned forward and said in a low voice.

"My friends and I think the same way. We want to form a group that will actually fight Voldemort. Will you join us?"

There was a silence. Harry could hear his heart beating in his ears. He was being asked to join the old Order of the Phoenix with his parents. He would fight Voldemort with the Marauders and his mother. He opened his mouth to say yes, but no words came out. He cleared his throat and spoke.

"Are you kidding?" he said, "Of course I will."

Remus smiled widely. "That's great! It's good to have you. With your dueling skills, you'll be a valuable member of the group." He held out his hand.

"Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix." The two men shook hands.

"So now, what happens?" Harry asked.

"I'll have to take you to meet the rest of us." Remus said, "So far, we've only recruited from our close friends, and people we know well. But since I actually saw you fighting Deatheaters, I think you can be trusted. And we need all the people that we can get."

They arranged that Harry should meet the rest of the crew at the Hogshead in Hogsmeade the next day at nine o'clock. Harry thought about all the things that had happened—would happen—there: the DA meeting, escaping the dementors, learning about Dumbledore…actually, now that he knew about Aberforth, he realized that the Hogshead would be a good spot for an Order meeting. Not as good as the Room of Requirement though, he thought to himself. But the Marauders didn't know about it, he remembered.

Meeting his parents and Sirius had robbed Harry of any shock that he might have felt, meeting Remus, but the differences between this Remus and how Harry remembered Lupin were a bit surprising. Still, Harry could see how this Remus had become the Professor Lupin. The earlier meeting with Sirius had been upsetting, but here, Harry felt at ease, as if everything that happened between his third year at Hogwarts and Lupin's death had never happened, or at least, it felt less significant. It felt as if Remus had just returned from a long trip abroad, and he and Harry were catching up.

Harry reflected that he would have to fake his surprise at meeting James and Lily again. They couldn't know how he knew that Remus, James, Sirius and Pettigrew were friends.

…

Harry stared at the door, summoning up the will to go in.

After Lupin and he had parted, Harry'd decided that he'd better get finding a job over with. He'd looked through a Daily Prophet left on somebody's seat for job advertisements. Unfortunately, all of them required references and OWL results. Not having any OWLs, and not knowing what else to do, he'd decided to just go into stores and restaurants, asking if they needed help. However, it appeared that business had been slow for a while, and nobody was looking for new employees.

He'd asked a sympathetic looking waiter if he knew of any openings.

"Well," he replied, "I heard the Sphinx is looking for some help. That's not unusual—they're always having trouble keeping their employees. It's a bit seedy."

That figures, thought Harry, and decided to save it as a last resort. But he had been looking for hours, and hadn't found anywhere else—they either didn't have work, or wanted to see his references. So now, he was left standing in front of the Sphinx, which turned out to be in Knockturn alley. If this failed, he supposed he'd have to look for jobs in the Muggle world, and it'd been so long since he had had anything to do with muggles other than the Dursleys, he wasn't sure where to start. He hadn't had to worry about employment in primary school. He opened the door.

The bartender was a young man with dark hair wearing battered robes and a cloak with a hood attached to it. Harry walked up and asked as casually as he could,

"I'm looking for work and heard you needed help. Do you have any job openings?"

"Yeah, we're looking for help cleaning and in the kitchen. You sure you're up for it?" he said, eyeing Harry's disheveled, but admittedly quality, clothes.

"Yeah, I am." Harry replied, "What's the pay?"

The man named a rather low amount, but added that room and board were also included. Harry, figuring that this was probably the best he could get, gladly accepted. Besides, this was just temporary, until he could figure out more about his situation.

"You'll be starting work tomorrow at 6 a. m." the man told him. "I'll show you your room, and we'll discuss your duties tomorrow. By the way, my name's Tarazed."

"Harry Peverell."

After Harry had been shown to his room, he decided that he'd better buy some clothes and other supplies since he had left them all behind. He went downstairs and walked out of the pub.

However, no sooner had he entered the street then a heavyset wizard stepped in front of him and said.

"Come with me, you're under arrest."

Harry was taken aback.

"What?" he asked incredulously, "I haven't done anything."

"You've been brought up with charges of suspicious loitering, smuggling, and destruction of property. Don't argue with me. You can explain everything at the Ministry."

Harry considered trying to escape, but he had just got a job, and he didn't know enough about what was happening—maybe he would find out at the ministry. So when the Ministry Wizard gripped his arm and turned around to apparate, he didn't resist.

…

He almost regretted this several hours later. They had put him in a bare cell with only a chair and a bed, and left him alone without answering any of his questions.

"Who accused me?" Harry had asked, "When is someone going to explain."

"The wizard who's in charge of that department's busy. You can wait here until he's free."

"Nobody's even told me what's going on!" Harry said angrily, "You can't just leave me here!"

"We can and we will", said the wizard who had arrested Harry—Harry was starting to really dislike the man. The way he acted reminded him of Umbridge without the cutseyness.

Harry had been left alone for several hours. At first he had been furious, but after hours of nothing to do but sit, he grew bored, and depressed. He wondered when somebody would come.

Finally, after they had fed him a meager dinner, the wizard came back.

"You're allowed one owl." He told Harry. "Tomorrow morning, the ministry official who's going to question you will come, and after that we'll send you your letter."

Harry was relieved that they weren't going to leave him here forever. However, he wasn't sure who he could send a letter to. He had only met his parents, Sirius, and Lupin, but none of them knew him that well. He decided to think about it after his interrogation the next day, and went to sleep.

That's it for now! Please review! All suggestions and OOC spottings welcome!