"James, come on, let's just go back, we have no clue where we're going!"
"Relax Rose," James said. "I have a plan."
"What? To get us into even more trouble?"
"No, to finally find out what's going on around here! Don't tell me you don't want know too."
"Of course I want to know," Rose said heatedly. "But we'll be back in our own time soon enough, our parents started brewing the potion yesterday, can't we just wait until we go back?"
"The potion won't be done for about twenty days," Hugo reminded his sister as the group turned a corner.
"Yah, and maybe after we find out about what this war is, we can help," put in Albus.
Rose let out a sigh of frustration. "But it won't do any good! I've told you, once we go back to our own time, everybody here won't remember us, and things will go back to the way they were before we came!"
"Still," James said, completely unmoved by Rose's remarks and anger. "Can't hurt to do a bit of investigating."
After Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny had gone to their morning classes, James had insisted that the five of them go see if they could find out what exactly this was that their parents seemed so intent on. The kids had spent an uneventful hour so far, wandering corridor after corridor, following James's lead.
"James, where are we going?" Lily questioned as they walked down the same hallway for the third time.
"You'll see," he whispered back. "Just stay quiet and-"
Two sets of footsteps were suddenly heard in the corridor, followed shortly by two voices.
Quickly, James opened up a nearby broom cupboard, and waved for everybody to get in. He had no sooner shut the door; when the voices and footsteps came to a stop where they had been standing previously.
"I must say, I don't think his heart is all in it," they heard one of the voices say. It was unfamiliar to them, though it sounded very old and wise.
"I worry that the Dark Lord may know that," the second voice said. This one, the five did recognize as, Albus's stomach did a lurch, Severus Snape. "He always knew when someone did not give something all their efforts."
"I do not think we have to worry about that Severus, Voldemort does not expect Draco to succeed, after all, this is merely punishment for Lucius's blunder at the Ministry, correct? No, what I'm most concerned about is who else he may harm in his path to attempt to get to me."
"I've tried relentlessly to get him to confide in me what he may be doing next, but he will not budge."
"Of course not, I'd imagine Voldemort has threatened his family, and as wrongly led as the boy may be, he still does have a heart, and therefore wants to protect them."
Snape muttered something, and the other voice let out a small laugh. "It would be foolish to offer protection so early on. He'd never accept, and Lucius is still in Azkaban. When the time is right, I will extend it to him. But I doubt that he will need it. If the plan succeeds, then what do they have to fear? Nothing more than usual."
Once more Snape said something inaudible.
"You gave me your word Severus. And I would expect you to follow it out." And with that there was the sound of footsteps leaving the corridor. Lily made to open the door, but James quickly pulled her hand away.
They heard Snape let out a long sigh, and then, after another moment, they heard his footsteps depart as well.
The five were still until they could no longer hear any footsteps. James cautiously opened the door a crack, and peered into the hall.
"Let's go," he said to the others.
"What do you reckon that was all about?" Rose asked as she stepped out.
"No clue," James replied. "I recognized that one voice though, it was-"
"-Severus Snape," Albus finished for him, not looking James in the eyes.
"Yah, and I guess he's supposed to be doing something for the other bloke, but whatever, that's not really important, probably some school related thing. Let's get back to our plan then."
"If you can call wandering in circles a plan," Rose said under her breath.
James continued to lead the group around Hogwarts, occasionally passing a student on break.
"James, what if our parents see us," Lily asked after awhile.
"They won't," James assured her. "I heard dad telling Uncle Ron that they wouldn't have break until after double Charms, so we should be safe for at least another half an hour. Hold on," James held up a hand for the others to stop. "I think we may have found her."
"Found who?" Rose whispered, exasperated.
"Luna," he answered grinning. "Have a look." He pointed down a corridor, to a girl with long, silvery blonde hair, with what appeared to be orange radishes in her ears. She was leaning against the wall, humming quietly to herself, as she drew on a bit of parchment.
"Luna?" Rose repeated in whisper. "Oh James, you can't be serious!"
"I'm dead serious," James said simply. "She was good friends with our parents at school, so she must know what's going on. And I can't imagine Luna not telling somebody something if they asked."
And with that, he started down the corridor. Reluctantly, the others followed in suit.
The five came to a stop in front of Luna.
"Hello," James said to her as Luna looked up at the apparent strangers standing in front of her.
"Hello," she said in her dreamy voice.
"What're you drawing there?" he asked, pointing down at her elaborate sketch sitting in her lap.
"A Swishy Toed Balgonder," she answered seriously. "I think I may have seen one by the Great Lake yesterday after Care of Magical Creatures."
"Er, what exactly is a Swiffy Toed Balgoer?" James inquired, trying to keep a straight face.
"Swishy Toed Balgonder," Luna corrected him. "They're little amphibians that like to scurry into peoples' ears and look at the view from their eyes."
"What?" Rose sputtered. "That's completely ludicrous!"
Albus gave her a small shove in her side to shut her up.
Luna didn't seem to pay any mind to her comment, or at least chose not to respond to it.
"Anyways," James continued, giving Rose a stern glare. "We're new here. What's you're name?"
"Luan Lovegood. But everybody calls me Loony Lovegood."
"Right," he said, still straining himself not to laugh. "I'm James. This is Albus, Rose, Lily and Hugo. And rumor out in the corridors is that you're pretty good friends with Harry Potter."
Luna said nothing for a moment, but stared at the five of them, as though trying to read them. "Yes, I suppose they're all calling him the Chosen One aren't they."
"The Chosen One?" Albus blurted out before he could stop himself. "Why?"
"Because of what happened at the Ministry last year," she shrugged. "But that's only the prophet making up stuff. Nobody heard what the prophecy said."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what prophecy?" James demanded. "And what happened at the Ministry last year?"
"Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and I all flew to the Ministry on Thestrals, because Harry had some sort of a dream about his godfather, Sirius Black. But when we got there, it turned out to all be a trap to try to get Harry to take some prophecy about him and You-Know-Who."
"You-Know-Who?" Hugo asked, puzzled. "You don't even know his name?"
"I know his name," she airily. "But I've always been told not to say it. Don't you know about him? I thought everybody did."
"Well see, we, er-" James stuttered enviously.
"You must be victims of Wimplebirds," she said, looking them over again.
"What?" Rose said, wrinkling her eyebrows in confusion.
"Wimplebirds, tiny little creatures that fly into your brain and erase all important memories from it. Yes, you all show all the symptoms…Especially her," she pointed at Rose, who opened her mouth to retort, but Hugo stepped on her foot to shush her.
"Yes, that must be it," James said, a rush of relief spreading over him that their cover had not been blown. "So anyways, back to what I was asking, who is this You-Know-Who?"
"He's a very Dark wizard," Luna said. "He tried to kill Harry when he was a baby, that's how he got his scar. But when he couldn't kill Harry, his killing curse backfired onto him, and he disappeared for thirteen years, but then he came back and he tried to kill Harry again last year at the Ministry."
James stared at her in awe. "Da- I mean, Harry Potter, survived a killing curse? I thought there was no way to block those. And how could-" but the bell rang, cutting him off.
"I hope you get your memories back from the Wimplebirds soon," Luna said, picking herself off the floor. "It helps if you eat lots of goat stomach, it lures them right out of your brain."
And with that, she skipped off down the hallway, leaving James, Albus, Rose, Lily and Hugo standing dumbfounded.