Only Time Will Tell
Chapter 6
Solutions And A Bonding Experience
Gryffindor Common Room, October 4th, 1971, 11:45 p.m.
Lily Evans was patrolling the common room. She took her responsibilities as a prefect very seriously, and even at the late hour she would not allow any kind of unnecessary disturbance in the Common Room, as others were trying to sleep. This night, however, it was particularly quiet. Lily scanned the room again and immediately noticed the reason for this unusual calm. Actually, she noticed by their absence more than anything, the notorious Marauders were no where in sight or earshot (which was highly unusual, and very suspicious, Lily noted, as Saturday evenings were often wild party nights for Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew.) It looked like it was going to be a quiet night after all!
With this happy thought of no Marauders, Lily decided to relax in front of the fire for awhile before bed. She had to clear off a couple of books that had been left on the couch in a hurry from another student. Irresponsible, thought Lily, leaving a pile of books lying around. She transferred some to the end table next to the sofa, and picked another one to move it when she paused, looking at the title. "Unusual Tricks of Our Time", Lily read, curious of who would read a silly book like that. Marauders, no doubt, she thought, remembering back to the time when Potter and Black had once replaced all the books in the library with joke books, hex and curse books, and magical pranks and jinxing books. This was the kind of stuff they read.
She pushed the book to the side, when it fell open to a page that had been bookmarked. This could be useful, she thought, hoping that she would be able to quash whatever scheme they had planned before it could be put into action. Lily picked up the book and began to read the page.
"Vicus Eo, The Time Transport Spell." it was titled, and as Lily read on, it became clearer to her that the reason the Marauders were not here was because they were going to try to travel through time. Like they could ever manage to pull that off! Lily thought to herself with a laugh. She looked down at her watch, which read 11:58 p.m. This bothered her for some reason, being so near to midnight. The spell only worked at midnight… she recalled from the reading. Surely they wouldn't…
They would! Lily sat bolt upright, knocking the book under the chair. She didn't know why this sudden conviction had struck her with such force, but for some reason she had a feeling that the Marauders were definitely going to try to travel through time, in less than two minutes! She dashed out of the common room, people giving her odd looks as she raced passed. She knew that if she got caught out of bed she would be in deep trouble with Filch, but she had to stop the Marauders. But where were they? Lily asked herself wildly, racking her brain thinking of all the places the Marauders might be, but none of them seemed like a good place for time travel… Somewhere outside! She decided, changing course and heading for the entrance hall.
Cool night air stuck her hard as she opened the heavy oak doors and quickly shut them. She shivered slightly as she scanned the front lawn, but there was of course no sign of them. The night was very clear, and she could see the little village of Hogsmeade in the distance, its quiet buildings silhouetted against the black, starry sky. Well, she might as well head back to the common room, she hadn't really expected to find them here, anyways, she decided, about to take her eyes off of the quaint skyline of sleepy homes. Just then a large gust of wind blew, almost knocking her off of her feet.
Strange, she thought, wind like that. It had stopped almost as suddenly as it had begun. Something was definitely odd. With one last look at the stars, Lily opened the heavy oak door and went back inside.
Gryffindor Common Room, October 5th, 1996, 9:00 p.m.
The Marauders, Harry, Ron, and Ginny made it back to the common room without anyone noticing. Hermione had dashed off to the library again, she, unlike Remus still had faith in it (the others had nothing against the library, but none of them had ever been quite as dedicated to it as Hermione or Remus had). James, Sirius, and Peter had placed the ignoring charm on themselves once again, and they tried to think of a way back.
Harry suggested that the same spell would get them back, only facing east instead of west. Remus pointed out that this was no good, as they would arrive exactly at the time that they left, and would be sucked into their own time space vortex, right back where they started. "Not only would we have made no progress, but there would also be two sets of us in the future, or the present." Everyone agreed that having two sets of the Marauders loose would not be a good thing.
"What about Dumbledore? He could find a way!" Ginny offered. Sirius shook his head.
"I don't think Dumbledore would be too amused if we showed up in his office 25 years later… even if he did act pretty cool about the flamingos the first time we pulled it!"
Harry's head was pounding, not only from racking his brain trying to come up with a way to transport his 16 year old father and friends back to their own time, but also still getting used to the fact that he was able to speak with his father, the father he had never really known.
"Here comes Hermione!" Peter piped, and Harry couldn't help but shudder at his voice, so squeaky like his animal form. He sensed Ron recoil slightly at his voice as well, and knew the fact that the man who would betray his father, send Sirius to Azkaban for twelve years, and show loyalty to the person who sought Harry's death, was bothering him as well.
As Hermione staggered towards the table, buckling under the weight of the armload of books she was carrying, Harry watched Peter. What had happened to change him? Had it been the power that had lured him, sealed his deal with Voldemort? He very much wanted to punch this short, portly teen, anything to pass on his own pain to the small little man, too cowardly to even stand up for his friends who had always protected him, who had caused himself so much suffering. James snapped him out of it.
"Harry? HARRY!" James called, waving his hand in front of Harry's face. Harry blinked.
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"Hermione suggested you and I try brewing this Timeless Potion she found in this book." James reminded him, and Harry blankly nodded, wondering what on earth a Timeless Potion was.
"A potion that lets the drinker go back in time by ingesting a magical object from that time period. Everyone is going to try to use one of these ways I've found for time travel." Hermione filled him in, then addressing the others. "Mind you, they are all highly complex, very dangerous if they go wrong!" She began to explain many of the risks at length, but Sirius thankfully interrupted her, at the same time Ron had opened his mouth to complain.
"Hermione, if you want us to go back anytime soon, you better let us try some of these!" He said, gathering the book he and Ginny had been looking at.
"Right. James and Harry, go to the dungeons and brew the Timeless Potion. Ginny and Sirius, start setting up a collapsible time vortex. Ron and Peter, keep looking for more spells, charms, anything involving time travel. Remus and I will try to charm these pocket watches so they are mechanical time turners, but are capable of turning back years. Then you can try to get back to your own time!" She looked very excited about the solutions she had found, for once pushing out of her mind that messing with time is highly dangerous and illegal.
Peter opened a book and began to search. Ron watched him for another moment with an odd expression on his face (my evil pet rat is reading a book next to me!) before also cracking open one and running his finger down the index. Remus and Hermione each grabbed an armload of pocket watches that Ron's dad had sent him (muggle pocket watches, some of his favorite collectibles, of course!), and set off for the (where else?) library.
Ginny turned to Sirius. "Got a preference for where we set up this portable time vortex? Because I know a corridor that was very handy for a portable swamp…" Ginny winked at Harry, and he smiled, remembering the swamp vividly from last year. Fred and George could never have topped that one, even if they had stayed at Hogwarts. Sirius and Ginny exited through the portrait hole, Ginny disclosing the details about her brothers' famous swamp. James yawned and stood up.
"Who is the potions master now? We need to go, er, raid his supplies!" James told Harry, a mischievous glint in his eye.
"Snape." Harry replied, an identical glint in his own eye. James got the message pretty clearly. Time to mess with Snape's mind a little more!
"Slimy, oily Snivellus! I'm surprised Dumbledore would make him Potions master, I would have thought he would contaminate the ingredients with all his grease!" James laughed, and Harry laughed too, though remembering what he had seen of his father and Snape from the pensive last year. Then again, Snape had never been much of a help to him...
"What did you have in mind for," Harry paused, unsure of what to call him, "Snivellus?" he finally said, thinking of good ole' Snape.
"I was thinking we could go and give him, I think the girl term for it is, a MAKEOVER!" James grinned, and Harry knew that Snape was in dire need for one of these! "And then while he is trying to, well, 'debeautify' himself, we'll take the ingredients and go."
And so Harry and his dad set off for the dungeons, Harry feeling happy to be spending quality time doing something that they both loved, seeing Snape miserable!