Only Time Will Tell

Chapter 5

Overdue Library Books

"Sirius! Dad? Remus? Peter?" Harry exclaimed, though very confused. The sixteen year old boys standing in front of him were undoubtedly James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Hermione and Ron looked at him in a concerned way, thinking he was hallucinating. Ginny, however, began waving her arms wildly around, moving towards the spot where Harry was staring and the Marauders were standing. She whacked Sirius rather forcefully in the chest.

"OWW!" Sirius exclaimed, and Ginny yelped in surprise with making contact with a solid object she couldn't see. James lifted the charm, revealing themselves to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

"Hello!" Sirius said brightly, and James waved. The other four were silent. Suddenly, Hermione ran forward and engulfed Sirius in a tight hug, sobbing. Sirius looked very confused by this, as did everyone else.

"Oh, Sirius! We missed you so much! Harry hasn't been the same! How did you get back?" She exclaimed between sobs. Sirius tried to politely but firmly pull away from Hermione, but it was no use as Ginny had also begun hugging him, though she was not sobbing quite as hard.

"Back from where? We're the Marauders of the past, so we don't know what has happened after the day we left. So, where have I gone that Harry hasn't been the same?" Sirius managed to say, thoroughly smothered by the two girls. Harry himself was looking a little teary-eyed. At Sirius's words, however, Hermione immediately released her grip, and looked as if she had they just done something awful.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked, feeling very numb from seeing Harry's dead dad, dead godfather, traitor friend, and, well Remus was still alive, but it was still a shock, standing in the hall.

"They are from the past! They could ruin the course of time if they find out too much! They might have already seen too much, and then I said the thing about Sirius!" She looked shocked at the very idea. Harry could see why, if he went to the future and found that he had died, he certainly would live the rest of his life differently when he went back to his own time.

"What Sirius thing?" Sirius asked, now also looking worried. "No wait! Don't tell me! I don't want to know!"

"So, hate Snape as much as we do? I liked the way you tripped him back there." Harry addressed his father (which felt really weird as he was the same age as him), changing the subject from Sirius's fate. He did not want to think about that right now.

"Yes, Snivellus has always been near and dear to my heart. It was I who began his fear of pink, tropical birds…" James replied with a sly grin.

"Uh, guys? Do you think we should move, because someone is coming and I don't think they would find the humor in this wonderful situation?" Ginny suggested, and sure enough, they heard footsteps nearby.

"Room of Requirement, d'you reckon?" Ron asked Harry at the same moment that Sirius asked James, and both groups laughed. Hermione and Remus put an end to this by grabbing their arms and steering them towards the Room of Requirement. Ginny and Peter followed, hurrying so as not to be seen by whoever was coming.

Once inside the room, which was this time furnished as a comfortable sitting room, everyone sat down and looked at their new acquaintances with interest.

"How did you guys get here from the past? Certainly a time turner couldn't be turned that many times?" Hermione asked after a moment.

The Marauders explained how they had gotten here, and how James had set the flamingos on Snape, and the message Sirius had written on McGonagall's board.

"So, you have been following us around all day?" Ron asked, incredulously.

"Yea, great way to learn about people, following them around. By the way, who was the dead convict Malfoy was talking about?" Sirius asked, and Harry winced.

"I think it's one of those things that we can't know…" James reminded Sirius, which Harry was grateful for. Sirius looked a little disappointed at this, hearing about convicts sounded exciting.

"Let me guess, you're a seeker, Harry!" James changed the subject.

"Yea, I am!" Harry replied, feeling odd that he was speaking with his father for the first time in his life. The conversation picked up from there, discussing Quidditch. The Marauders and Harry and his friends found that they had a lot in common, hating Slytherins and Snape, knack for getting into trouble (although this was another topic Harry couldn't go into with them), and lots of other stuff. It was getting late when Hermione and Remus exclaimed about the time at the exact moment.

"When are you all going back to your time, anyways?" Ron asked, and the Marauders considered this question.

"Well, we should go back before we disrupt time, if we haven't already!" Remus decided, and Harry was disappointed that they were leaving so soon. Peter pointed out that they didn't know how to go back in time, and this posed quite a problem.

"Didn't you say you found that book in the library? It's probably still there!" Ginny said.

"Right, we'll just get the book and be on our way!" Sirius said, beginning to head for the door. James caught him by the arm before he reached it, however.

"I don't think the librarian lends books to former students…" James told him.

"Hermione could go pick it up, no one would suspect anything wrong with that, for she's ALWAYS in the library!" Ron said, teasing Hermione, who had gone red and looked a little hurt by this. Nevertheless, she consented to go get the book. After she left, James approached Harry.

"Now that she's gone, I was wondering if you could tell me who you got those unusual green eyes from, because you certainly didn't get them from me!" Harry just stared, wondering how much damage it would do to tell him that he married Lily Evans.

"Do you really want me to spoil that for you?" Harry asked quietly. He really didn't want them to go, it was nice to be able to talk to your father, he thought.

"I could have told you that one, Prongs!" Sirius said, coming over. "There is only one girl in our year who has eyes like THAT."

James looked into Harry's deep green eyes for a moment longer before it clicked. "Surely not Lily Evans?"

Harry slowly nodded, just as Hermione burst through the door, looking breathless.

"The book is gone!" She managed to say, trying to catch her breath. She must have sprinted from the library.

"What do you mean, it's gone? Where could it have gone?!?" Remus asked, startled.

"Madame Pince said it had been checked out and never returned! 25 years ago, to be exact!" Hermione continued, still breathing rather hard.

"The one time Moony, 'Mr. Punctual', forgets to return a library book, it's the one book that will allow us to return to our own time!" James said in a disbelieving voice.

"I bet you anything it's sitting on the table in the Shrieking Shack, right where we left it." Remus said in a dejected voice, ashamed he had abused the Honor System of the Hogwarts Library, feeling as though he had betrayed his ever-useful resource.

"We never brought it to the shack, remember? We left it in the common room, then went to the shack without it. It could be anywhere!" Peter sighed. Ron felt very awkward being in the same room with the person who would become his pet rat, or had been his pet rat, or whatever. It was weird.

"We'll just have to find some other way for you to get back. There must be another way. If only I still had my time-turner… but then again…" Hermione was muttering to herself, as she often did when solving a particularly difficult problem.

"Wonder what your overdue fees are like, with a book overdue for 25 years." Ginny wondered aloud.