Chapter 10-Sirius Watch

**Disclaimer** Harry Potter and its characters belong to the wonderful JKR. She's blonde, rich, and we're…not.

A/N: We're really, truly sorry. Gred was away on a long vacation, but other than that, we really have no excuse, other than-well-we're kind of losing inspiration. We promise we will not abandon the story-ever-but we're trying to wrap it up as quickly as possible. The next chapter is already done, so we promise you won't have to wait that long!

Enjoy!

Lily was awoken Wednesday morning by loud, obnoxious noises drifting from outside her closed door. She pushed her tangles red hair from her eyes and brushed her fingers through them, not bothering to do anything special with it like Dominique or Molly would do on a regular basis.

After quickly brushing her teeth, she heard the noises still coming from outside her room. Getting dressed for the day, she walked out.

Albus was sitting at the breakfast table, not eating and looking slightly green. One of the boys who arrived yesterday evening-the attractive one-was scarfing down food like there was no tomorrow. He was worse than Uncle Ron, and even James and Fred II.

Lily walked into the miniature common room where the House Elves had set up breakfast. "Hi guys," she mumbled tiredly. Al and Teddy waved hello while the still unnamed boy grunted through his food. "What's going on?"

"We're waiting for…Jose to wake up so we can go ahead and make introductions," answered Teddy, gesturing to the newcomer. The still unnamed boy raised his head a little, and then returned to his plate.

"Ah. I'll go and wake him," offered Lily, already on her way the older boy's room.

"Be careful," warned Al from behind her. "You know he's a monster when you wake him up in the morning."

Lily chuckled. "I'll bring my protective gear."

She knocked on James's door. Without waiting for a response from the inside, she walked in.

James was lying on his stomach, arms and legs spread out like an eagle. The blanket was tangled in his feet at the end of the bed and his face was hidden somewhere in his pillow. Lily walked up slowly, taking small steps. When she reached James, she poked him in the side gently with two fingers. He didn't respond, and Lily brought her lips up to his ear and whispered in a sing-song voice, "James, Jamsie, James, wake up!" The older boy didn't reply, but unconsciously rolled on his back, throwing an arm over his face and accidently catching Lily's shoulder. "Ow!" Lily yelped. She rubbed her shoulder and glanced down. Somewhere under the folds of his sheets, she could make out the head of something furry. Curiosity getting the best of her, she pulled the ratty thing out from the covers. A mischievous smile crept onto her face and her eyes filled with a gleam that was usually reserved for James or Fred.

"A teddy bear?" she giggled to herself. "James Potter still sleeps with a teddy bear? I got rid of mine two years ago!"

This would certainly come in handy, thought Lily. Finally she would have some leverage over her brother, instead of the other way around. Throwing the bear onto the floor, Lily crawled onto the bed and snuggled up close to him. "James," she rocked him on the shoulder slightly. He didn't move, so the girl opened one of his hazel eyes with her thumb and index finger. They were unfocused and he didn't show any reaction. James let out a grunt and threw an arm over Lily, holding her like he held his teddy bear.

"Oof," Lily squirmed and struggled to get out of his grip, but James's Quiddich-toned arms held strong in his hug, even through his sleep. "James wake up!" No such luck. Listening closely, Lily heard James muttering under his breath. Leaning in closer, Lily heard him whispering incoherent statements that all sounded like they contained the name "Cho".

So he talks in his sleep, too, eh?

Getting an idea, Lily whispered in his ear, "James, Cho Chang is here to see you."

The effect was instantaneous. The boy immediately shot straight up, sending Lily flying off the bed.

"Cho? Darling, I'm not even properly dressed!" he was obviously still delusional with sleep.

"Okay, don't worry," said Lily. "I'll take her outside to wait while you get ready."

"Thank you, sister dearest," replied James, completely oblivious.

Lily turned and walked out of the room. She could already hear James getting dressed.

"Well, that worked," Lily said to herself, noting it for future reference. The fiery-haired girl grinned all the way back to the "common room" where she met Teddy, Al, and the Mystery Boy once more.

The boys raised their eyebrows, wanting in on the joke.

"So did you wake him?" asked Al.

"Oh, I woke him," she smirked. "And you'll never believe what I found out! James still has—"

But what James still 'has' they didn't get to hear. Just then, they heard the slam of a door being swung open and James scrambled in. His hair was more of a mess than usual, his robes were ruffled, and his Ravenclaw tie was askew.

"Cho?" he said, looking around. "Cho are you here?"

Al couldn't help but be the first one to laugh. He turned to Lily. "This is how you woke him up?"

The younger girl nodded, a bit proud.

"That's the way to do it!" grinned Albus, giving his sister a high-five.

Teddy shook his head in amusement. Once everyone done eating and sitting on the cushiony couches, and getting comfortable, introductions were made.

"So," the mysterious boy broke the silence. "Snivelly is in the corner reading some Dark Arts book and being an outcast, so I guess it's just us." His tone showed that he couldn't have been more elated at the prospect. He turned to Albus. "Alright, Mini-James—"

James's head shot up, and Albus made an exasperated sigh, as if they had been over this many times before. "I told you. I am not related to James Potter, nor am I his clone, little brother, and I haven't used Polyjuice Potion!"

The boy shrugged. "But your eyes. I know I've at least seen them before."

Albus shook his head quickly. "No you haven't."

"Sorry to interrupt," said James, not sounding sorry at all. "But I think we should move on." He gave Albus a pointed look. Lily shifted in her seat. Teddy pulled out a notebook from his bag that was lying next to him and set it on the floor beside him.

Teddy cleared his throat. "Well, my name is Teddy Astra. I'm a metamorphagus, as you can probably tell." Teddy screwed up his eyes and his turquoise hair turned a light shade of red. The boy's eyes widened and he leaned back. "Woah."

Teddy grinned. "And I'm in Gryffindor." The boy smiled approvingly.

"Same here!" he exclaimed with an air of pride.

Next was Lily. "Ok, um, I'm Lily. Like the flower, but, uh, not. I'm a person, obviously." She was turning red at being under the spotlight. The boy smiled encouragingly at her and Lily blushed. Her next words came out quiet and murmured. "And I'm in Hufflepuff." She started playing with the end of a strand of her fiery hair.

The boy smiled again. "Hufflepuff is a very nice House."

Lily blushed again.

Then Albus. "All right. Um, my name is Al, er, Bus. Al Bus, yeah. Al Bus. Like the Knight Bus…" The boy gave him a weird look, and James snickered. Al glared at him and shrunk lower in his seat.

"My name," declared James loudly, "Is Jose." He bowed a little in his seat. "Pleased to make your acquaintance," he dramatically said. Teddy and Al rolled their eyes while Lily giggled at her brother's antics.

The Mystery Boy nodded in acknowledgment. "Jose." Their eyes locked for a moment, and both troublemakers immediately knew that they had found a partner in crime.

They all looked at The Mystery Boy, and as if remembering they were making introductions, he stated, "Well, my name is Sirius Orion Black—"

The reaction was instantaneous. Teddy's hair turned a shade of light peach in shock and confusion, Lily gave a small squeak, Albus looked disbelieving, and James almost fell out of his chair.

"I'm sorry," said Al, rubbing his right ear as if he had gone deaf. "Who did you say you are?"

The Mystery Boy-Sirius-looked perplexed at the odd reactions. He just said his name, what was so out of the ordinary?

An incoherent babble of voices broke out amongst the time-travelers.

"I see it now!"

"The picture-"

"The hair-"

"The smile-"

Al turned to Teddy with wide eyes, "Bu-but he can't be, can he?"

"I'm quite aware of who I am thank you very much." Mystery boy replied to the question, knowing it wasn't meant for him. "As I was saying, I'm Sirius Orion Black and that over there is Snivelly, as I've said before." The slimy haired sixth year walked into the room with his booked tucked under his arm.

"Snivelly? What kind of name is that?" James couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"My name is not Snivelly, you idiot," Snivelly sneered with disgust. "It's Severus."

Just as he uttered the last syllable mouths began to drop. "This is not good Teddy... not good." Albus was whispering frantically to Teddy. But surely Dumbledore knew who they were. "So the pasts are now with the two futures?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Can someone please explain? I want to go home!" Sirius began to whine like he did in the headmaster's office only the night before. His food could only act as a distraction for so long. "Why am I here? Why aren't I with James? Where's Moony? "

Lily slapped her palm to her forehead and gave a small cry of surrender. "It doesn't matter if we tell them does it? If we are just going to memory wash them in the end—"

"Memory wash? Memory wash?" Sirius had his eyes open wide as he let out a sudden outburst.

"No I didn't mean it like that. We have to clear a part of your memory you can't know this happened."

"Yeah Lils, I think it is best we tell them everything if we want to avoid Sirius getting a heart attack." Teddy let out a small sigh as he looked the boy over. Many questions were floating around in Teddy's head. This is perfect. His dad is here and now one of his dad's best friends. Of course he enjoyed hearing the stories Harry liked to tell about his father, but it wasn't the same as having Sirius, one of Remus's best friends, here in person.

James began to retell the story of the broken time turner and the time traveling mishap. Of course, he twisted it around a bit so it didn't sound like they were in this fix all because of him. "And so then you guys came."

"So you're from the future?" inquired Sirius incredulously.

"Weren't you listening to a word of what he said? 'Jose' just said that they are from the future." Severus started muttering curses under his breath. He kept on shooting the two Potter brothers 'looks'. The same look his older-self sent that day in the Headmaster's office, and it made them shift with discomfort.

Unfortunately, Severus's snarky comment set ablaze an all out insult war. The children just looked back and forth from the bickering pair. This is going to be a problem.

"Greasy git!"

"Incest child!"

"Nosy bug!"

"Obnoxious twat!"

"Hopeless-snake-that-can't-talk-to-a-girl-to-save-his-worthless-life-and-only-bathes-once-every-six-months-jealous-unloved-unwanted-little—"

"Would you two shut up?" Surprisingly, it was Lily that cut in. Before, heads were swiveling back-and-forth between the two boys as if it were a Muggle tennis match. "I'm sick of you both already!" Lily's face was becoming red. "You're stuck here, just like the rest of us, so you might as well get along!" By now the little girl was breathing heavily and was as red as her fiery hair. Composing herself, she reverted back to her sweet voice and said, "Thank you."

Luckily, the tiny ball of fury that was Lily Potter managed to stun the arguing pair long enough for Teddy to interject. "I think Professor Dumbledore was right. We will need to watch these two."

Lily huffed. "You think?"

Tactfully, Teddy ignored the input. "I'll go first."

Al raised his eyebrows inquisitively. Personally, he would never want to be left alone with those two together. He couldn't understand why anyone would be so eager to volunteer. But then again, Teddy always had his reasons.

"Okay, then," said James, leaning back on his heels and clapping his hands once. "I'm going to head to the Ravenclaw common room for some Cho action, you three have fun." And with that the dark-haired boy was out the door.

"I think I'll go find Gable," Lily commented, skirting around the fact that she would be looking for her mother as well. She shot Sirius and Severus a look that was famous for Weasley women (especially Grandma Weasley and Ginny) that clearly said: Behave.

That left Sirius, Severus, Al, and Teddy. Al shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "Um, I promised Draco I would walk with him to Potions class…so…bye." With that he slunk out the door, leaving the three older boys in an awkward silence.

It was Sirius that broke the tension. "And then there were three…" he murmured under his breath. Teddy chuckled a little at the familiar Muggle phrase, and Severus just looked annoyed. He picked his book back up and headed to his room without another word, presumably to read and get away from Sirius.

And that left Teddy and Sirius. The only sound between them was the ticking of a clock in the corner.

"Pink penguins drinking firewhisky wearing pink tutus in Australia on a snowy roof top during the summer," burst Sirius suddenly.

Teddy furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

Grinning, Sirius said, "It's, um, supposed to be an icebreaker."

The blue-haired boy laughed slightly. "So, what year did you come from?" Although he knew perfectly well what year.

"1976. I was in the middle of my sixth year. Er, what year are we in now?"

"1993 I believe. I came from 2019."

Sirius's dark eyebrows shot up and he whistled. "Wow."

Teddy nodded. "Yeah."

Sirius cleared his throat. "I was caught at the worst time, too. Amelia Clove and I were just starting to really get into it when Snivellus had to butt in. And now here I am." Sirius threw up his arms in frustration. "And he's not even a Prefect! Nosy dolt, he is."

Teddy nodded mutely, but on the inside he was confused. Why would Harry name his oldest son after Sirius, and youngest son after Severus? It was obvious that the two would never get along, and the only positive thing anyone ever really heard Harry say about Severus was: "He's a hero," "He saved my life on many occasions," "Severus Snape was the bravest man I ever knew," yada, yada, yada….but he never really gave the full details of why or how. But then again, no one really liked talking about the war, or what happened during that dark time.

"Wanna play Exploding Snap?" Sirius broke Teddy from his unpleasant thoughts.

A smile broke across his face. "Sure."

~0~0~0~0~0~0~

"Hey, Cho! Cho! Cho! Cho Chang!" James was running towards the black-haired beauty, clutching some parchment in his hand.

"Yes, Jose?" she called, as he neared.

By the time James reached her, the gaggle of girls surrounding her disbanded, which left her alone with James. He gave a sort of proud smile. "I wrote you a poem."

Something passed over Cho's face. Some would classify it as dread.

"Oh, Cho Chang you make my heart go BANG!

The way you smile,

Reminds me of a beautiful window tile.

Your eyes are like honey,

I love bunnies.

When the cows go moo,

All I think about is you.

I hope you think about me too.

Even when you are using the loo,

I bet you even have beautiful poo—"

Here, Cho made a squeak of disbelief, or maybe outrage.

"Your toes maybe small,

But when ever I meet you in these deserted halls,

I know that your beauty calls,

And it makes me fall,

For you.

Cho Chang, I think the fellytone rang,

And I picked it up and said, "hello",

But there was no reply.

You make me feel high,

Up there in that wonderful sky.

Oh My.

Changie Cho,

You walk so slow.

It turns me on,

Just like a chess pawn.

I maybe bad at writing poems,

And I can't think of a word that rhymes with poems.

But it's okay because I know,

That you secretly love me too, Cho."

Cho's mouth was hanging slightly agape. Her face was the fiercest shade of scarlet, and she looked stunned.

"Oh, I knew you'd love it!" beamed James as he took in her reaction. "You're so happy you don't even know what to say! But it's okay, I will speak for you."

Cho snapped her mouth shut, finally.

"There's no need to tell me I'm a wonderful poet. I already know it. Ha! See? I just rhymed!" James was so proud of his work that he managed to do all by himself. "Oh, and you don't even have to buy a frame for it. I bought one for you!" Or, more liked Teddy transfigured it for him, but Cho didn't need to know that.

Eventually Cho spoke, and her voice was somewhat high-pitched. "Ok, Jose. Lets…. um…lets get to class, yeah? I'm suppose to be your….guide."

~0~0~0~0~0~0~

Sirius winced and sucked on his slightly burnt index finger. "Damn," he muttered.

"I know," chuckled Teddy. "Who knew cards could be so dangerous?"

"Yeah, tell me about it. I was playing Snap with my best mate James," Teddy perked up. This was the James Potter they were talking about, the father Harry never got to know. Thinking quickly, Teddy made a note to store this entire conversation for later. "We almost set the whole common room on fire," continued Sirius, oblivious to Teddy's reeling thoughts.

The metamorphagus raised his eyebrows in amusement. "Oh?"

Sirius laughed. "Yeah! Thank Merlin Moony was there. Without Remus, I probably wouldn't be here to tell this tale." Sirius waved a dramatic hand, but Teddy's chest constricted.

"W-wait…who?" he practically squeaked.

"Oh, my other mate, Remus. We call him Moony. Or Remy, but he prefers Moony for some reason." Sirius grinned easily. "Why?"

"Oh, n-no reason. The name just sounded…familiar."

Sirius shrugged. "Maybe you saw his plaque in the trophy room. He's a Prefect."

On the inside, Teddy was bursting with anticipation and joy. This was…this was perfect! Not only did he have his father in the same building, but he also had his father's best friend. How much more could he ask for?

Sirius saw the look on Teddy's face, and assumed the other boy was just excited to hear the story. Full of encouragement and new fervor, Sirius continued. "Yeah, it was incredible. A spark caught on James's sleeve-and the fabric was flammable, mind you— "

Teddy was literally on the edge of his seat, practically at the point of falling off. It was a pointless story, really. Amusing, but pointless. Nevertheless, the orphaned boy drank it in, clinging on every word, though he tried not to look too interested.

"So then Moony comes in, hallelujah. And, being the sensible guy that he is, whips out his wand and does a quick 'agumenti'! And voila, the flames are gone. At that point James had ripped off the entire top half of his wardrobe, and one of the couches and the rugcaught on fire." Sirius started laughing. "Poor Pete almost pissed himself!"

Teddy laughed too, completely missing the name 'Pete'.

Nonchalantly, Teddy managed to ease in a question he'd been itching to ask. "So, Sirius. This…Remus guy," he started casually. "You say he was a Prefect?"

Harry had already informed Teddy of this, of course, but this was the perfect way to slip into conversation about Remus without Sirius getting too suspicious.

"Oh, yeah. Perfect Prefect Moony, that's what we call him. Dumbledore was sensible enough not to make me or James Prefects." Sirius made a face that clearly showed the idea of being a Prefect disgusted him.

"So I take it he was the 'good one'?"

"Yeah, you could say that," laughed Sirius again. "But don't be fooled, Remy had his fair share of trouble, too. He's just smart enough to not get caught. Actually, some of our best pranks were of his design…"

And so on they talked. About the Marauders (Teddy tactfully maneuvered the conversation away from Peter Pettigrew whenever the traitor would come up), about pranks, girls, and-to Teddy's delight-one Remus Lupin.

Everything that Teddy had been yearning to know for a lifetime was spoken in just one conversation. Right now, things were perfect.

A/N: Thanks again for your patients! The next chapter will be coming shortly, we promise.

Please review, it encourages us. Also, before we mentioned we're starting to lose inspiration…so if you guys have any ideas or things you want to see, let us know.