Lily Potters POV

"Ooph!" my brothers and I huffed as we hit the floor.

"Ow!" I moaned-- James' weight was killing me. I could only imagine what Al was going through, trapped under both of us. "Get off!"

James got up and then I did, and poor Al was able to breathe again.

"Thanks." He puffed.

"What the heck just happened?" asked James.

What the heck did just happen?

"I've got no idea," replied Al.

I felt fine, maybe a little dizzy from the fall. I looked around the Office- it appeared no different, Except for a few silver instruments that were puffing and whirring. I wondered if they were the reason we were called there.

"Hello- can I help you?" said Professor Dippet's Portrait.

We all jumped at his sudden voice. I decided to ask him about the orange light.

"Err… Professor Dippet," I said tentatively, "Do you know what happened just then?"

"What do you mean? Are you foreign? Don't you know the customs of English wizards? -- Oh! You're the young students Dumbledore…" he kept talking but I didn't hear.

Dumbledore- His portrait wasn't on the wall.

I spun around to face my brothers.

"No, of course we're not from Czechoslovakia!" James shouted in response to professor Dippet's ramblings, oblivious to my distress.

I looked at Albus, who was usually more reliable when it came to serious matters. "Al," I whispered hoarsely, "Professor Dumbledore's portrait isn't on the wall." He gasped as he realized what this meant.

"So… he hasn't died yet…"

"No: We've gone back in time! That's what the orange light was about!" I exclaimed. It was all very obvious when I thought about it.

"What d'you mean?"

"You saw the light, didn't you?" Al nodded.



"Last week, Rose was lecturing about this new ministry tool—time portals. They use them to investigate criminal's lives, and when anyone goes back in time they see an orange light!"

"How did this happen?!"

"I don't know!" I sighed in frustration. "Where is Rose when you actually need her?"

"Okay. We need a plan." He had his brow furrowed in concentration, looking determined.

I laughed once in spite of myself- he was acting exactly like dad. Al gave me a sour look.

"What's going on?" James asked, finally ending his argument with Professor Dippet.

"How slow are you, James?" said Al, "We've gone back in time!"

"Back in time…? Whoa. Are you sure?" He didn't wait for an answer. "How far back d'you think we've gone?"

"Before Dumbledore died, but after Dippet did."

I realized that this could be our parents' time- or our Grandparents'.

"Can you imagine Grandma as a teenager?" I couldn't.

"Hardly. What about Granddad?"

"What about Lily and James?" Al asked.

I thought about that for a minute- seeing the grandparents I had only heard about… meeting them

"Wow: that would be amazing." I said.

"Imagine Mum and Dad our age!" laughed James.

"Weird."

"Okay, but we need to find a way to get back." I said. I really didn't want to get stuck in a time before I was born. "We need to speak to... Dumbledore."

James nodded and Al said,

"Okay. Um... but how do we speak to him?"

"Yeah Lily, this is his office."

"I don't know. We need to search the castle and find him. From what I've heard… he's the man we're looking for."

"All right then. And, you're sure we've gone back in time Lily?" asked Al.



"Very sure."

"No one will recognize us then."

"Let's go." I was nervous and excited- what if I saw my parents?

I wonder if I look as much like mum as everyone says I do, I couldn't help but think.

Just then, two teenagers— a redhead girl and a black-haired boy – came tumbling through the door.

Lily Evans' POV

I groaned. I'd never realized before how hard the floor was.

"Are you okay, Lily?" James asked.

"Fine," I replied stiffly.

I stood up to see three teenagers that were gaping at us like we had extra heads.

"Uh, hello?" I said mainly to rouse them. Their gob- struck faces were starting to scare me.

"Can you stop looking at us like we're mutant goblins?" said James.

They ignored us and huddled together, whispering.

"What's their problem?" James muttered.

I looked at myself, trying to see if the light had made me look weird… or maybe turned me purple. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

I looked around the office. Everything looked normal there, too.

"Is it just me, or does that kid look like… my twin?" James whispered, pointing to the taller boy.

I could only see his profile, but I was amazed at how much like James the boy looked- the straight nose, the firm jaw, the bottom lip that jutted out just a tiny bit, and the extremely messy black hair.

And then I gasped. I was horrified that I knew James' face so well.

"That's just weird, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" I said vaguely.

I studied the teenagers. There were two boys; the taller one with messy black hair and a shorter one with dark brown hair and glasses. They looked about sixteen. The girl had dark red hair and freckles; she 

looked about fourteen of fifteen. I guessed they were siblings by the way they were acting and how alike they looked.

I wonder if these people are why we were called to the office. Maybe they need a tour or something.

And then I wondered where on earth Dumbledore was.

The black haired boy turned and looked at me. I felt like I was gazing into a mirror- his eyes were exactly the same as mine; almond shaped and vivid green. I don't know how long we stared at each other, but it felt like ages before he looked away.

"Who are they?" I thought out loud.

"No one that I know, unless Hogwarts takes exchange students… does Hogwarts take exchange students?"

"Not that I know of. Maybe this is something new, and Dumbledore wants to introduce them to the prefects first?—Where is Dumbledore? Isn't he supposed to meet with us?"

"Yeah. Or maybe this is some kind of Dumbledore-esque test?"

"I don't think so."

The girl turned around and looked at us as if she were about to give a speech.

"Err… sorry about that earlier." She sounded really nervous. "We didn't mean to be so rude. Umm-"

Potter interrupted her with, "What's your name?"

"L- err-- Paul Lawrence and Dunbar. I mean, those are mine and my brothers' names." She was speaking really fast.

"Paul, Lawrence and Dunbar?" I heard the brown- haired brother hiss.

"Oh- I'm sorry. It's impolite to… err, well, err… I'm L- Pauline- Paul for short. And those are my brothers- Larry and… Barry..." She looked down and started breathing rapidly.

"This is so weird!" she whispered to her brothers.

"What's weird?" I asked.

The harassed- looking girl jumped at my voice.

"Oh, nothing!" she squeaked. Her blacked haired brother took pity in her and started speaking to us instead.

"We were just wondering if anything … strange happened to you when you walked through the door. Any light…?"



"Yeah," We answered at the same time.

"Purple light," James added.

'Pauline' nodded when he said this.

"Okay- we think we've gone back in time…"

"Really? How far back? Where're you from?" Potter asked excitedly.

"We're from the year two thousand and twenty three."

I gaped. 'Two thousand and twenty three'? That was more than forty years in the future! I could hardly comprehend it, yet I couldn't help but believe it. There was something about them….

"And," 'Larry' continued, "We think you've gone forward in time."

"So… that's what the purple light was-- us travelling through time?" I asked.

"We think so. In our time, the ministry developed something called 'Time Portals'. Dumbledore's office door must've been turned into a time portal."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to try and get back."

"I'm gonna try to see Mum and Dad."

"No J- Barry! You are so not!"

"Aw, come on – it can't hurt!"

"Your parents are from this time?" Potter asked.

"Somewhere around this time. It'd be awesome if I could talk them; Imean, they wouldn't even know who I am."

"J.S.P!" 'Pauline' hissed, "You have no idea how much I want to do that too, but we have to get back!"

"You're acting like Rose, Pauline. Lighten up a bit!"

"No, Pauline's right, we should try not to be seen, meddling with time is dangerous." I said.

"Yeah, Listen to her, James. She is your senior."

The door opened again.



Ginny's POV

I couldn't believe my eyes. I had only seen a couple of pictures of Harry's Parents, but I knew that here, as real as life, they were standing. And they were teenagers. The sound of Harry's too- fast breathing shook me out of my shocked trance. I tried to calm him down.

"It's okay, Harry. Shh, it's okay, calm down. It's only…" It's only what? A hallucination, your imagination?

I didn't know.

Unless they're not actually his parents. So- what are they? Polyjuiced impersonators? Freakishly alike distant relatives that no one knows about?

"My… Parents," Harry whispered hoarsely.

"Are they really, Harry?" I asked.

My voice seemed to bring him back to reality, and he nodded.

I heard a yell from behind Lily and James, and moved my head to see who it was. Two boys and a girl were standing behind them, looking shocked, harried and bewildered.What amazed me was the girl-- she looked just like me.

No one was saying anything, which became really awkward, so I tried to break the ice.

"Uh, hi. I'm Ginny. Dumbledore wanted us to come here. Is there anything I can… help you with?"

"If you know how to time- travel: that would be helpful." Said James.

"Err, time- travel?"

"Yeah I think we're from the past."

I didn't exactly know what to tell them, and Harry wasn't being helpful. I decided to play ignorant so I could find out as much as I could about them.

"Oh! So what is your name? Are you from… Oh- stuff it! I know who you two are – Lily and James. I'm Ginny Weasley, and this is Harry--"

Oh, shoot! What am I supposed to tell them?

Nothing-- About Harry, anyway.

"Harry."

"So, Ginny, you're from this time, right?" James asked.

"Yeah."



"And what time is this, exactly?"

"It's the fifteenth of March, Nineteen ninety seven." I informed them.

"Whoa-- That's twenty years in the future!"

"Amazing, isn't it? You know what; I'm going to Dumbledore to see if he can help sort this out. I don't think you want to be stuck here for very long. But, wait—how did you get here?"

Lily answered, "A time Portal. It's something from their time." She pointed to the three mute teenagers.

"Who are they?" I whispered.

"I don't know, she said they are 'Paul, Lawrence and Dunbar' but I don't think they're their real names."

I looked at the three again. They really looked like they were related to me.

I turned to them.

"Hi. I'm not sure if you heard, but, I'm Ginny. Where are you from?"

"Two thousand and twenty three." Said the girl called Pauline.

"You don't happen to be related to me, do you?"

"Yes," said the one with glasses, while the black haired boy said, "No," and the red head said, "Distantly."

I laughed, trying to lighten the tense mood.

"Which is it?"

They looked at each other for a moment.

Pauline answered, "Since we're from the future, we don't want to tell you much. Let's keep it at that."

"Okay…"

I went back to Harry to see if he was having any progress.

He still had wide eyes, but he looked somewhat composed.

Time for action.

"Harry, we've got to find Dumbledore; these people need to get back to where they came from."

I looked at the five lost teenagers.

"I'll help you out, and you can come. But you'll need to be disguised, Lily and James."



They turned their hair a dark blonde, which I thought looked really weird.

"I don't think anyone will recognize you now. Let's go."

I heard the door open and then a thump.

I turned around; expecting to see Dumbledore on the floor, but it wasn't him. It was a teenage girl who looked very much like a redheaded, blue- eyed Hermione.