Only Time Will Tell

Chapter 3

Flamingos And Unusual Letters

The next morning the Marauders awoke with a plan fully formed, as if their minds had been collaborating while they had been sleeping. Operation Deja Vu would commence at breakfast.

Deciding that Harry and his friends looked interesting enough, the Marauders followed him down to the Great Hall, listening carefully to all that they said to learn more about him.

So far, they had gathered that Harry's best friends were Ron and Hermione. Ron was the red-head, and seemed to be the keeper of the Gryffindor team, but had forgotten to do his Charms homework. Hermione had bushy brown hair but was not bad looking (as Sirius had pointed out), and was scolding Ron for his negligence and refused point-blank to allow him to copy her homework. Harry seemed indifferent to their bickering (which lasted the duration of the trip down to the Great Hall), which was something James observed and liked. He often did this when Sirius and Remus bickered, not unlike Ron and Hermione.

They were soon joined by another red-head, (very attractive, Sirius noted), who could only be Ron's sister. Her name was Ginny, and she and Harry seemed quite friendly (James was pleased to see that Harry had good taste in girls, at least). When they entered the Great Hall, James stopped dead when he saw who was seated at the staff table, almost causing the invisibility cloak to slide off. What had caused him to stop became apparent to the others in a moment.

He had recognized the hooked nose first, then the greasy hair. Severus Snape, more affectionately called Snivellus by the Marauders, was a teacher at Hogwarts. "Excellent." Sirius hissed, relishing in his mind what the other boys knew what they should do. Harry and the rest of the Great Hall would soon be seeing pink.

"Please, please, please Hermione! I swear I'll never neglect my homework again!" Ron whined as they seated themselves at the table.

"Absolutely not! It is your own fault that you 'forgot' to do it!" Hermione snapped, grabbing some toast.

"Can it, you two!" Harry cried exasperatedly. Sometimes it was hard for him to tell which of their behavior he hated more: when they would fight like this or when they would get all lovey-dovey on each other. He shared this thought with Ginny, who had to fight hard to suppress her giggles.

"Sounds like mail is here." Ron muttered dully, abandoning his argument for the moment as he was losing. Harry instinctively looked up for Hedwig's white feathers among the mass of brown and gray, but instead of seeing a swarm of owls fluttering to their owners, he was surely seeing…

"Flamingos?" Hermione wondered open mouthed at the ceiling. Bright pink birds were carrying the mail instead. The other students also looked quite bewildered. Harry turned his attention to Dumbledore, wanting to see how he would react. Dumbledore not only looked bewildered, but a little disbelieving.

What happened next surprised Harry more than anything. After delivering the mail, the flamingos grouped together once again, but instead of leaving the Great Hall, the swarm began to dive bomb Snape.

Snape watched in utter terror as the birds dove closer and closer. This had only happened once before, a long time ago. James Potter! He thought, confused at how this would be happening to him yet again 25 years later. He quickly remembered that it was happening again, and tore out of the hall, surrounded by a cloud of flamingos pecking him severely. The students erupted with laughter, the Marauders included. Ron actually had tears rolling down his cheeks he was in such glee.

Dumbledore had not moved since the flamingos had first arrived. He was too stunned too. Only one person had ever sent a flock of flamingos on Snape before, but it seemed impossible that the same culprit could be behind it again. Some of the older teachers who had been at Hogwarts during the first time, McGonagall included, looked much the same as Dumbledore did. The Marauders were amazed at how well the whole thing had gone, and James felt exceptionally proud that a swarm of flamingos had caused such a memory of him to reemerge.

Just then, Snape reentered the Great Hall, several cuts across his face from the flamingos. He took great strides, approaching the Gryffindor table rapidly.

"Potter! My office, NOW!" Snape bellowed at Harry, who looked quite surprised that Snape thought he was behind the flamingos.

"Crap! Snape probably thinks we taught him how to pull that one, and now Harry'll get the blame!" Remus explained, watching as Snape raged on Harry.

"How would we have taught…." Sirius asked, confused.

"Hello?!?! Like father like son! I thought you would have realized that, passing on valuable pranks to the next generation of the Marauders!" Remus told him, and comprehension dawned on Sirius. James, however, felt a shiver run down his spine when Remus said 'father'. He had raised this person. Bizarre.

Dumbledore was watching Snape and Harry from the staff table. Harry claimed he didn't do it, which puzzled Dumbledore for surely Sirius would have told Harry about the flamingos. But that didn't make sense either, Harry was still mourning over the loss of Sirius, he wouldn't pull a prank James had that would remind him that Sirius was gone. The appearance of the flamingos couldn't be coincidental…

"Headmaster! Surely you remember who was responsible for this last time?" Snape bellowed, still lividly eyeing Harry.

"I did not send a flock of flamingos on you! Not today, not ever before!" Harry bellowed back truthfully, just as angry as Snape for being accused of a flamingo sender. "But I saw how you ran from them, guess I know what you really fear!" He added, knowing he would pay dearly for that little retort. But at the moment he didn't care.

"Like your kid, James!" Sirius said, watching Harry avidly. James had to admit, Harry seemed pretty cool to be talking back to Snape, a teacher at the school.

"I remember, Severus." Dumbledore said simply. Snape could only gape at this. Just then an owl (not a flamingo, fortunately) swooped in and landed in front of Dumbledore. The rest of the school was still watching this with great curiosity. Dumbledore opened the letter, and if he had been shocked before, it was nothing compared to how he felt after reading the letter.

Dumbledore,
This is Remus Lupin, and unless I am greatly mistaken, a swarm of flamingos has just attacked Severus for the second time in his life, and you have just told him that you remember who was responsible the first time it happened, twenty-some years ago. I know this must sound strange, but you must believe me when I say this: Harry is not responsible for this, it is the same group of people it was the first time.

In our 6th year, James, Sirius, Peter, and I used a time travel spell to visit Hogwarts 25 years from then. Our 16 year old selves are actually hidden under James's cloak in the left corner of the Great Hall, BUT DON'T LOOK OVER THERE JUST YET OR YOU WILL GIVE OUR POSITION AWAY! Why am I telling you this, 25 years later? Because our 16 year old selves saw you receive a letter, and it wasn't until this morning that I remembered what day it was, and I had a funny feeling that I sent you this letter. Time is a funny thing, isn't it?

Just giving you a heads up warning, our 16 year old selves were/are not going to be quite as mature as I am now, so some unusual things happened/will be happening around Hogwarts today. Tonight I will be stopping in to explain some things.

If a swarm of angry flamingos has NOT just attacked Severus, then please ignore this letter and send me an owl telling me I am insane (which is probably true anyways!)

Sincerely,
Remus