"How stupid do you think we are? We aren't complete idiots and you shouldn't stand there thinking that you can make complete fools of us." Sirius was in a ready combat position, his knees slightly bent like he was ready to pounce at a moment's notice.
"Please, we aren't trying to make fools of all of you. You have to understand how difficult this all is," Hermione tried to placate the angered seventh years, but her efforts seemed futile.
"I'm not lying," Harry sounded angry, and that started to frighten Ron and Ginny a little. When Harry lost control it could be terrifying.
"Harry-" Ginny reached her hand toward his and tried to calm him, but a fire was already lit in his once again green eyes.
"No," Harry turned away from Ginny and back to the other teens. "You all are so entitled, so upset that you weren't told about everything right from the start. Well screw that. You don't get to feel like you were cheated here. Do you think that this was easy for us? Do you think that getting transported through time and thrown into another fucking war was something that we wanted? Fuck no, it wasn't! I didn't want to come here. I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to have to see all of you."
"Harry, please stop. You don't know what you're saying," Hermione said.
"Yes I do, Hermione! Why do you guys always think I don't know what's best for me?"
"Harry, that's not what we're saying and you know it," Ron glared at Harry, silently telling him to stand down.
"No, Ron! They don't understand it! They don't get it!," Harry turned again to the seventh years. "You think that being lied to for a couple months was hard? Try eleven years! Eleven years of thinking your parents were drunks who died in a car crash and that no one cared about you! Oh, hold on! The second part was never a lie! Just -Just shut up! It's not your turn to be hurt! Just get out of here! Go! Leave! It's always been what you're best at!"
The seventh years gaped at the spectacle in front of them. Ginny was in front of Harry, gently guiding him to sit on the floor and whispering to him. Ron was crouching next to him, his presence clearly comforting to his friend. Hermione turned away from her time-traveling cohorts.
She stood with her back straight and her mouth in a thin line, ready to fight to defend her friends, "You should go." Her tone made it clear that her words weren't mere suggestion, but command. Mary and Marlene conceded quickly, grabbing for their friends and trying to remove them from the room.
Lily still looked at Harry like she was seeing him for the first time. At some point, James had come up behind her and he was resting one of his hands on the small of her back, "Harry?" Lily looked at Hermione, "I don't understand. How did we leave him?"
A pained expression passed through Hermione's features, "Not now, Lily. Just go please."
James led her from the room and soon it was just the time travelers. Hermione sat on Harry's other side and prepared to comfort him. He was crying still, his hair messier than usual with his hands buried in the locks. His eyes were red and he was crumpled like he had finally let go of something that he had spent too long holding onto.
Harry's three friends participated in silent conversation, Ron trying to soothe his best friend while the girls were trying to sort out damage control. Hermione and Ginny made eye contact and rose in union to follow after the seventh years. Once the two of them left the room, Harry turned to Ron.
"I didn't mean to say it. I never wanted to blame them for dying. I know that they did it to protect me. I know that. I just - I just can't help but feel bitter. They left me. And Sirius went after Peter instead of staying with me. He choose vengeance over me. I was his responsibility. Didn't that mean anything to him?"
"Harry you meant a lot to Sirius. He would have done anything for you if he could've."
"That didn't stop him from leaving," Harry knew how young he sounded and hated himself for it.
"He left you with Hagrid. He made sure you were safe," Ron added. "And he came for you after Azkaban. He came after you in the department of mysteries. The whole reason he even tried to escape Azkaban was so that he could protect you.
"And you know how Sirius felt about James. He couldn't believe what Peter had done. His instincts took over. He made a mistake. People make mistakes, Harry. He chose you when he could," Ron spoke.
Harry just groaned and sunk his fingers further into his hair.
"Are we really supposed to believe that shit that they just flung at us?" Sirius was pacing the boys dorm where the seventh years had relocated after being kicked out of the Room of Requirement.
James was sitting next to Lily on his bed with his head in his hands and his back hunched over. His posture was nearly the same as Harry's was in the other room, but neither man knew that. Lily was leant against him in a similar position of defeat. The rest of the students were spread around the room. Remus had chosen to lean against the wall with his eyes closed as he listened to the harsh sound of Sirius' rant. Mary had taken Remus' bed and was very interested in studying her fingers. Marlene shared a spot next to Pete in front of Mary. No one spoke but Sirius.
"It's obvious bullshit! They think they can pull one over on us? They don't know who they're messing with. We'll get them! Who the fuck do they think they are? I can't believe them. Can you believe them?" Sirius had paused in his tirade to address the room and in that small window of silence, Lily's voice whispered an ugly confession.
"Yes." Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at her. Sirius' mouth had dropped open and Lily tried to ignore the feeling of six sets of eyes boring into her. "I understand how crazy I must sound. I get it… But did you see his mannerisms? His face? He looks and acts just like James. He… he has my eyes."
Sirius looked a little angry, "James I'm sorry for what I'm about to say, but in what fucking world would the two of you actually ever get together? He's been chasing you for forever, Red. You've never stopped shooting him down."
Remus' dry voice cut into the conversation, "He has a fair point, Lily."
James looked up from his hunch and turned his eyes on Lily as if silently asking her a question. She took a small breath, "I don't hate him. James and I - well things have changed a lot. I don't feel the way I used to. He's not the person I used to think he was."
Normally this confession would have had James jumping for joy and lead to a true Marauder celebration or the exchanging of galleons in the name of lost bets, but the atmosphere in the room was far too heavy for anyone to summon anything more than a vague smile. James released one of the hands that was clutching his hair and took Lily's instead.
There was a knock on the door and Remus, who was still leaned against the wall, reached over to open it. Ginny and Hermione were standing there, clearly nervous that they were about to walk into a field of landmines, but with their heads held high in the illusion of confidence. They had lingered after leacing Ron and Harry in the Room of Requirement. They wanted to give both parties time to settle before they stepped in and started to stir things up again.
Sirius' glare increased tenfold when he saw them, "What the fuck do you two want?"
"Calm down, Sirius. We're just here to answer your questions," Ginny's tone matched one of Molly Weasley's.
"What gives you the right to tell me to calm down?" Sirius spat back. Remus walked over to him and shoved him into a sitting position on the bed.
"Just listen to them, Padfoot."
Hermione cleared her throat, "Is there anything you wanted answered specifically or do you want us to just start talking?"
Lily didn't waste a second in raising her concerns, "Harry said we left him. I want to know what he meant."
The two girls shared a look, trying to decide who was more suited to answer that one. Ginny turned back to Lily, "Lily, you and James didn't leave Harry by choice. It was terrible what happened. I don't know if you actually want to know."
Lily looked upset by this, but James raised his head to look back at Ginny, his voice cracking from no use, "So we die? Lily and I? We die?"
"I'm so sorry," Ginny whispered.
"How?" Lily's voice carried so much pain that it seemed almost impossible that she was able to form words.
"You were betrayed. You were in hiding and someone told Voldemort where to find you. The two of you; you saved Harry's life. He was only one and a half and the most powerful wizard of all time couldn't kill him," Ginny spoke.
"So he's really their son, then?" Mary asked. She seemed nervous to ask a question that might get a rise out of Sirius, but asked it anyhow.
"Yes, he is. He's their only child. Harry James Potter." Hermione responded. She looked at Sirius who was brooding next to Remus, "You were named godfather, Sirius."
"Who betrayed them? Who betrayed James?" Sirius glared. He still didn't believe them, and in his questions, he was trying to find somewhere knew to direct his rage.
Ginny and Hermione shared another silent conversation. Hermione took the lead, "We don't think that now is an appropriate time to answer that."
"Bullshit. I knew you were all making this up!"
"Sirius, trust us. You don't want to know right now. If you insist, I'll tell you later," Ginny attempted to reason with him.
James' face had grown grim in the time that Sirius' question had been posed. Sirius was still trying to fight for the answer, "You said you were here to answer our questions. Fucking answer my question!"
"Pads, they won't say it because the person is in the room," James turned to the time traveling girls, "Right? That's the only thing that would make sense."
Hermione and Ginny shifted uncomfortably on their feet and Hermione took it upon herself to nod. The small action brought everyone to the edge of their seats.
"One of us betrays them? Who is it?" Marlene asked, her voice betraying her hope that it wasn't herself.
"It's - I - um," Hermione looked hopelessly to Ginny who thankfully took over.
"There is no point in answering that. We don't even know if the timeline will stay the same now that we're here. Maybe you won't be betrayed, maybe you will. We really can't say. There is no point in worrying over it."
"There is every point in worrying over it! One of us is a traitor!" Sirius yelled.
Ginny and Hermione both silently agreed with him, but in an effort of keeping peace, tried to move on from the topic.
"Look we aren't going to tell you that without first speaking to Ron and Harry about it," Hermione tried. "Is there anything else we can answer?"
"Where's Harry?" James looked at Ginny, having a better relationship with her than with Hermione.
"He's still in the Room of Requirement, why?" Her brown eyes looked over James critically. In the time that they had spent in the marauders era, she had come to have a very high respect for Harry's father. Even at such a young age, it was obvious what kind of man he was and would grow be.
"I would like to see and talk to him."
"Yeah wouldn't we all," Sirius spat out viciously.
"Sirius, shut up," Lily sighed. "I would like to see him too, please."
"You shut up, Evans. I still can't believe that you're buying into this shit. It's bloody ridiculous. All of it. As if one of us would betray our friends. We're Gryffindors. We're family. I don't care what these two are saying. It's not real."
"What's it going to take us to convince you?" Hermione asked him. "Is it information that you want from us? We know things about all of you. Well, most of you, at least. What's it going to take Sirius?"
"I want the fucking truth. That's it."
"And that's what we gave you. You just aren't willing to believe it," Ginny sighed.
Sirius snarled viciously and pushed past her to leave the room. Hermione looked apprehensive, ready to chase after him, but Remus' words stopped her. "Don't worry. He's not going after Harry. Just give him some time."
Hermione still appeared unsettled, but she nodded to Remus in thanks. "Look, I know that this is hard to believe, but we wouldn't lie about something like this. And I'm sure that if you think about, truly think about it, it will all come to make sense."
The silence hung heavy in the air as Hermione and Ginny shifted awkwardly on their feet, unsure of what to do. Finally Ginny asked, "Would you all like us to leave? It might give this a bit more time to settle."
The murmured responses of the seventh years sounded mostly like agreement, so Hermione and Ginny left the room, the sound of the door clicking into place the last noise made for a long while.
Hermione and Ginny returned to the Room of Requirement to find Harry brooding silently in a chair while Ron sat by his side. They both looked up at the sound of the door and relief flooding Ron's eyes while Harry's pooled with guilt. The raven-haired boy looked back down to his lap and tried to hide the way his cheeks had flushed in shame.
Ginny went to him and placed her hands on his cheeks, raising his head so that their eyes could meet. She didn't look at him with sympathy, but she silently was asking him if he was okay. He closed his eyes and leaned his head into her hands, comforted by her unyielding support. He spoke so quietly that it could've gone easily unheard, "I'm sorry."
Ginny's soft gaze hardened a little and she responded at a quiet, but not as quiet level. "You don't get to do that, Harry. You don't get to apologize for feeling something."
"I shouldn't have said it. I didn't mean it."
She took a brief pause before plowing ahead, "No, you're right. You shouldn't have said it. What you said was harsh and cruel and a little unfair, but you needed to get that out. And even if you didn't really mean it, Harry, you meant it a little. You and I both know that. You need to figure that out."
Harry sighed, finally pulling his head away from her hand, "I'm just so tired, Gin. I'm tired and I'm angry, and I don't know what to do about it anymore. This is bullshit, you know? I never deluded myself into thinking that life was going to be easy, but really? Really? This is what happens next? We get thrown into another war that we've got no idea what to do with, and then we're surrounded by all of these people who are dead. They're dead. I've made my peace with that. It sucks, but it's how it is. I stopped holding out for anything else. I just- what are we even supposed to be doing here?"
At some point after Ginny had arrived, Ron vacated the seat next to Harry in favor of discussing the seventh years in hushed tones on the other side of the room. Ginny took Ron's vacated chair and held onto Harry's hand. "I wish so much that I could answer that for you. But I'm just as lost as you are here. All we can do is what we've been doing."
"But that's not enough! People are still dying out there. Every day people are dying. And it doesn't matter that they're dead where we come from because they are dying now. They're dying now and all over again I'm helpless to save them. Being here - being back at Hogwarts - we are surrounded by walking corpses. Everywhere we go it's like we're walking through a living graveyard. I can't do it. I can't face them." The desperation that shown on his face broke her heart and Ginny grasped for a suitable response.
"Harry, you can't possibly think that any of this is your fault. You didn't do this. You aren't killing anyone. Voldemort is the one who is killing innocents. None of this is on you," She used her other hand to stroke his hair.
"It feels like it is. I was born to kill him, Ginny. I did, but I was too late. I let all of these people down. I let so many die. I never wanted anyone to die for me."
"Harry, people died for you because they made that choice. They didn't want to surrender to the war. And you're being ridiculous, honestly. You're not even alive yet, you nutter. This isn't your war. This is out of your hands so you need to stop blaming yourself."
Harry opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut short by the opening of the Room of Requirement's doors. Hermione and Ron immediately rushed forward in vain attempt to prevent the entrance, but they couldn't get there fast enough. Lily pushed the door open and nervously walked into the room. James followed closely behind her.
"Lily -" Hermione tried to speak, but Lily cut her off.
"We're not here to do any harm. I promise. I just, I um, I wanted to see you," Lily's eyes had found Harry's and she faltered upon looking at him.
"Now's maybe not the best time, Lily," Ron spoke. He was gentle, but firm and Lily started to back away regretfully.
James had taken Lily's hand to pull her back out of the room, but Harry stopped the both of them.
"No!" His sudden decision to stop them came out loud and brash and awkward. He sucked back in a deep breath, "It's okay. You can stay if you want." Ginny looked at him in surprise and rose from her seat to leave him with his parents, but he pulled her back down. Under his breath he spoke, "Don't leave me."
Ginny squeezed Harry's hand in reassurance and then the room produced two more chairs across from Harry and Ginny. Ron and Hermione left the room to give the four the appropriate space they needed.
Lily and James shuffled over to the seats, painfully awkward, but both girls, Lily and Ginny, tried to soothe the tension with hesitant smiles. The weight of this moment wasn't lost on any of them, and Harry tried to settle his emotions as prepared to interact with his parents as their son for the first time that he could recall.
A/N: So I'm really sorry that updates are so few and far between. This story has always been a struggle for me, so I'm doing the best I can with it. This is the shortest chapter yet, but I hope you all like it anyhow. Let me know what you think with a review.
And some questions to ponder: Do you guys like where the story is headed? What do you think is going to happen next? Let me know!
Thanks for reading :)