A/N: Thanks everyone for your comforting reviews, I have calmed down a bit now, sorry, online breakdowns are never pretty. (LOL) Well done for staying with me for this long.

Hobesan: Yeah, it's kind of fun (though often tortuous) coming up with the parallels. My sister is sick of me suddenly yelling out statements in the middle of meals like: Of course! The Argentineans can be DEATHEATERS! Heh. Writers' epiphanies always seem to be dreadfully loud…

Disclaimer (in the form of song): I don't own Harry! I don't own zilch! But I don't need any rights to write this fic! Someone might sue, that'd be quite cruel, but this might just save your life…That's the power of a disclaimer!

Um…if that was too random for some folks, it was supposed to be to the tune of The power of Love. Ignores awkward silence coming from weirded out readers and carries on writing

P.S -- means a break in the writing and / a change in perspective, it'll be pretty obvious whose it is.

Telling Tales and Tests

Harry fell into bed with a reluctant sigh, he couldn't help but feel that this was still all a dream, and that the moment he fell asleep he would awake back in his own time. It was all too fantastic to believe, but then again, it was the same with every new thing he learnt about the wizarding world as he had grown up through Hogwarts.

Dumbledore had, predicatively, already thought of all Harry's needs, and a trunk full of robes, school books and equipment had already been left for him on his bed. It had been a long day and the shock of being left in time with his parents and the Marauders seemed surreal next to the quiet of the dorm where the boys now all lay asleep. If he pulled the drapes around him, Harry could easily imagine the bodies in the beds belonged Seamus, Dean and Neville, and that the chainsaw like snore coming from Sirius' direction were those of Ron.

He had stayed in the common room longer than any of the other boys, claiming he had wanted to have a look through some of his school books before he started lessons tomorrow, after the initial jokes about Remus' having found a kindred spirit they had let him be. But instead Harry found himself gazing into the flames of the common room fire wondering at the situation he had found himself in, in a world full of those dead and gone, and they didn't even know who he was.

It was typical; after all, Harry could rarely find anything to work in his favour. Time shifted, people changed, horrific deeds were reversed until that had not even yet happened, but Harry Potter was always in the same situation. One that was painful, challenging and where everyone expected him to act normal and get along with being the 'saviour of the world,' the infamously deranged attention-seeker or the happy-go-lucky famous Boy Who Lived, and these were only three of the stereotypes that people viewed him through.

Except that this time no-one new who he was. There would be no expectations, no stares or whispers, only a blank slate and perhaps…freedom? Maybe he could work this in his favour. He could be whoever he wanted to be in this time, a normal, nineteen-scratch that, he was supposed to be seventeen-year-old boy, coming to school, and hoping to make friends, get good grades and certainly not have to worry about evil dark lords after him and everything and one he held dear. No-one to save,

well, for a while anyway, safe in the certainty that everybody, despite the impending doom he knew history was about to deal, was not about to die today or the next.

It might've been crazy and illogical but there was something redeeming in the thought that all those that Harry had been unable to save, the deaths and the responsibility of them which piled on top of his heart like lead weights, seemed to be, if only temporarily, relieved. Everyone here was alive and kicking, or hadn't even started kicking yet, he knew that no-one in his time had blamed him for the deaths he had caused; but now that he was faced with the prospect of a world where none of those lives had even ended could Harry find it in his heart to stop blaming himself?

Anyone who has ever lost someone they loved will always say they would give almost anything just to spend another hour with them. Wasn't that what Harry was now faced with? A second-shot, or at least a chance to gain redemption, to ask forgiveness in a way, knowing the future and what it held couldn't he now appreciate every minute he had as time speeded towards that inevitable end for those that now surrounded him?

Without even bothering to get undressed Harry closed his eyes, with a feeling of, (could it be possible?) peace fluttering faintly in his chest. He listened to the steady breathing coming from the other beds and reminded himself that he was not surrounded by Seamus, Dean, Ron and Neville; he was listening to the slumber of his father and his friends.

--

The sun streamed through the drapes of Harry's bed and he stirred with a groan, something was lying on top of him…something heavy…slowly he opened his eyes and wondered groggily, for an instant, why there was a mirror hanging above him.

Then his reflection spoke.

"HARRY! WAKE UP! IT'S A BRAND NEW DAAAAAY! YOUR FIRST DAY AT HOGWAAAAAARTS!"

"Oh God." Harry moaned and tried to burrow back into his duvet, the Marauders weren't having any of it.

"Up, Granger!" Sirius threw open the drapes of Harry's four-poster and ripped his bed covers from his grasp, thrusting Harry, like a disgruntled new-born, into the land of the awake.

"Do you mind?" Harry asked indignantly, secretly revelling in the feeling of having his Dad and Godfather wake him up, "I could've been sleeping in the nude for all you knew."

Sirius blinked for a second, trying to work out if he was joking or not, and when Harry grinned he barked out a laugh. "That would've been an interesting start to the day, to say the least." Remus and Peter joined the growing crowd on Harry's bed, apparently all the Marauders wanted to wish the new boy good morning.

"What's our policy on nudity again? I forget, we do have so many 'policies.'"

"Remus, Remus, Remus," Sirius shook his head pityingly, "Peter: nudity?"

Peter suddenly went pink at being thrust into the spot light, "Uh, erm…nudity is…bad?" he stammered.

"Bingo!" cried Sirius, "Dancing in your nuddy-pants is a no-go, unless on the victim of a prank."

"Or if you're Lil-"

"-As stimulating as this conversation on nakedness has been, I would like some breakfast." Harry quickly cut in, a little perturbed that he had just heard his godfather use the phrase 'nuddy pants' and trying to block out any thoughts about why James now had a look on his face that said he was fantasising something.

Chucking his robes that he had fallen asleep in into a crumpled heap on the floor and pulling on a clean set from his new trunk they headed down to breakfast.

--

A younger McGonagall handed Harry his new timetable and he was glad to see that after an initial surprise when she registered his appearance (made all the more potent by the fact that James was sitting next to him, shovelling down bacon) she resumed her familiarly stern expression that he had grown to know so well.

At first glance Harry was bound to groan when he saw that he had double potions first thing, as usual, with the Slytherins, until he realised that although he would be sharing the dungeons with Snape the hooked-nosed man would not be in the position of power. "Who teaches potions?" he asked, knowing very well the answer.

"Old Slughorn, he's not bad, even if he is head of Slytherin, you wouldn't expect it to look at him. I mean, you'd think he would favour his own house all the time, being a natural Slytherin, but it's not like that." Sirius explained through a mouthful of toast.

"That's not to say he doesn't have his favourites," added James darkly.

"The Slug Club" murmured Peter.

"Professor Slughorn likes to collect people he believes are worth something, those with particular talents or important connections and tends to pay special attention to them. Needless to say he has a made lot of important friends in past Slug Club members." Remus had bothered to look up from the Daily Prophet to explain this to Harry before returning to its printed pages. However, Harry already knew all of the information they had given him, having been a rather reluctant member of the Slug Club himself almost two years ago.

"Aren't any of you in it?" he asked, slightly surprised, he was sure that Remus, James and Sirius had all been talented wizards in one way or another.

"Well, he bugged Remus for a while cus' he's so good at school work and stuff, but you having any of it, were you Moony? He gave up after the first couple of years. And he wasted about two minutes with me before he realised that my 'prestigious' family have practically disowned me."

"So does he like anyone from Gryffindor?" Harry asked, trying to steer the conversation towards his mother and, sure enough, it worked.

"Sure, he absolutely loves Lilly Evans; she's a whiz at potions, even better than Remus." Harry noticed that Remus' expression didn't alter in the slightest at this information; he obviously didn't see his good grades in subjects as a competition, whereas Hermione would probably have been frowning and flicking her bushy hair by now if someone had made such a comment. It happened every time someone pointed out she was rubbish at flying, which was nearly always Ron.

"You alright Harry?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, I'm just missing my friends, that's all," he said truthfully.

"Yeah? Where'd you go before here?" James asked curiously.

"Um," luckily Harry had thought about this before hand, he couldn't say he'd gone to Durmstrang or Beauxbatons, the only other wizarding schools he knew, because he knew hardly anything about the places, so he opted for the only other choice. "I was home schooled; but there were a bunch of other kids in my area that were the same, we used to hang out all the time."

"Huh, that's cool, I always thought that home schooling would be really boring but if you had a bunch of kids doing the same thing I guess it wouldn't be so bad." Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Why'd you transfer so late?" Remus shot another question,

Harry shrugged, the question didn't bother him, "My guardians thought it would be best if I experienced a school before I finished my education, you know, to get an idea of the environment most witches and wizards come from."

"Makes sense."

But James and Remus were looking at him strangely; it was his father that voiced the question, "Your guardians? What about your parents?"

He had planned to be as truthful as possible when coming up with a story; it would make things less complicated, "My parents died when I was really little, in a…car accident."

The awkward silence that followed is familiar to every teenager whose new friend has just made a rather personal announcement. "Um, I'm sorry Harry." The Marauders were all suitably subdued.

"Don't worry about it; it happened a long time ago."

"Who are your guardians then?" Peter asked tentatively,

Although Harry had been living at the Burrow for the last summer, not quite being able to bring himself to face 12 Grimmauld Place quite yet, he replied with the answer that made the most sense according to his story.

"With my Mum's sister and her family, they're muggles, so my friend's Dad taught me all the magic I know."

"Wow, that's a weird upbringing, what's your aunt's family like?"

"They hate magic, and were pretty happy when I spent most of my time around my friend's house, I guess that was part of the reason they wanted to pawn me off to Hogwarts."

"Thank god you're not a fully fledged muggle-born," said Sirius and Harry couldn't believe his ears, did his godfather just make a racist comment?

"And why is that?" asked Harry through gritted teeth, feeling anger and confusion begin to bubble up inside him.

"I don't think we could take another disco fan, muggle fads are seriously weird." Immediately Harry's anger disappeared and he laughed, "Nope, no disco fans here, but my cousin loves the stuff." An image suddenly floated into Harry's mind of Dudley in flares, an afro and platform shoes and he didn't know whether to laugh or shudder.

--

Potions was, for once in his life, laid-back and maybe even a little fun. He spent his time watching his dad and Sirius horsing around, seriously messing up their potions and earning disgusted looks from the Slytherins in the process. Harry discovered that without Snape leaning over his shoulder making scathing remarks and even without the help of the Half-Blood Prince he could succeed relatively okay in the subject. He had paired up with Remus, who offered advice every now and then when not murmuring instructions out of the side of his mouth to a panicked Peter, reminding Harry of Hermione and Neville.

Slughorn had peered curiously at Harry on introduction and Harry hoped against all hope that he wouldn't be able to find anything worthwhile in his face. So he was relieved when the professor had grunted "Granger? I'm afraid I've never heard of them, my boy," before ushering them to their seats. Harry had spent the rest of his lesson listening intently to Slughorn praise Lilly. She seemed to take the compliments graciously and maybe even found Slughorn's shower of kind words a little off-putting because she kept on rolling her eyes when he came near, causing her round-faced friend to giggle.

Remus nudged Harry's elbow, jerking him away from his concentration on Lilly, "You're cutting your dragon liver all wonky."

Harry looked down to see a pile of thoroughly uneven slices of liver and quickly corrected them, "Ah, thanks," he muttered.

"So what were you like at potions back at home?"

Harry pulled a face, "Not so good, I never really liked the subject so I find it hard to pay attention."

Remus gave him a disapproving look, "You're average at the moment but you could do better, if you just put a little bit of concentration into your effort I think you'll find your results would be greatly improved." Harry fought the urge to laugh; Remus was always destined to be a teacher really.

"Yeah, thanks, I'll bear that in mind Remus" he couldn't help the grin spreading across his face and he tried to hide it by staring very hard at his potion, hoping Remus didn't notice.

/Remus however, did notice, and could feel the habitual frown begin to slip across his expression at the boy now trying to hide a very big smile; he was clearly on the verge of laughing. Was Harry laughing at him? He admitted that it was probably none of his business about how Harry handled his schoolwork but he was just offering advice, that was what friends did, wasn't it?

But after that every time he gave Harry a tip or told him he was going wrong somewhere, the grin just grew bigger accompanied by small remarks that he could tell were bordering on laughing: "Yeah, thanks Remus," or "Cheers Lupin." It got so that every time he looked up he was dazzled by the smile, he didn't think he could take it anymore.

"May I ask what is so funny, Harry?" he finally snapped.

Harry looked up, startled for a moment and then, finally, at Remus' expression, he burst out laughing, attracting the attention of James and Sirius at the next table. "What's up?" Sirius asked,

"And why does Moony-I mean-Remus look like such a sour puss?"

Harry let his chuckles die down before speaking, "Remus just really reminds me of a Professor I knew once."

"I thought you said you were home-schooled," Remus eyed him suspiciously,

"Yeah, I was, he lived near me is all, he was…in and out of work a lot, taught me pretty much everything I know about defence of the dark arts."

Remus could not help but notice Harry gave him an odd look at this, for some reason he glanced at Remus in an oddly wistful way, the young werewolf opened his mouth and was about to say something when Professor Slughorn bumbled over and told them to stop talking.

--

/Lilly was rather frustrated with herself, all through out potions all she could think about was that new boy, Granger. However, resolutely, she had refrained from twisting her head to look at him, that would have just been too obvious, besides, she had to maintain some degree of concentration; she had a reputation after all. Slughorn was a nice enough teacher, he was always very encouraging and pleasant to her any way, but today she found herself actually realising that many of her classmates who complained about him did have a bit of a point. His constant trips over to her table became increasingly annoying as she tried to think about Granger whilst concocting a complicated potion at the same time. Finally she snapped to her best friend:

"Oh for the love of Merlin, if he comes over one more time I think I might throw this lip-locking potion over him just to get the old prat to shut up."

Alice stifled a snigger, "Well this is an occurrence, for once you're not singing his praises, about time."

"It's just hard to concentrate on making this potion and-"

"And what? This isn't a particularly hard potion, not for brewer-extraordinaire like yourself anyway; something else is on your mind, something important, you've barely spoken a word to me all lesson, fess up already."

Lilly mumbled something incoherently before voicing more audibly that it was nothing. She did not know why her thoughts were so fixated on the boy she had only spoken to once, who had laughed at her (probably because she'd said something stupid and not realised it) before rushing off, preferring to spend his time with the crusty old headmaster than herself, he hadn't even told her his name.

Later she had gleaned a little information from others to discover his name was Harry Granger. Harry, it was funny, she had always told herself that if she ever had a son she would called him Harry, but then she had also learned that he was now part of the Marauders, or on his way to joining their stupid little gang at least, before the day was even out. She loathed the Marauders. Remus, of course, was alright, he was always polite, hard working and friendly and never big-(not to mention)-pig-headed, immature or arrogant like Potter or Black. Frankly, she couldn't see why he was friends with them.

And now the new boy had fallen foul of them. She didn't know why it got up her back so much, it was none of her business who he made friends with after all, she had just, for a split second, rather hoped it would've been with her. Maybe she was just sick of seeing people faun after the little band of show-offs like they were God's gift to the earth, yes, that was it, she had just been hoping that there might be one boy in Gryffindor who didn't hang on their every word and she had been disappointed.

Alice was having none of her feeble excuses however.

"Come on, I know you've got something on you're mind. Or someone, who's the lucky guy?" Lilly tensed and Alice knew she had hit the nail on the head.

"Is it James?" she asked excitedly, "Have you finally stopped acting like a frigid ice queen and decided to let him take you out?" James Potter was the only thing the two friends disagreed on, that and-

"What about Frank, have you spoken to him yet?"

"Stop trying to change the subject," said Alice, but she had gotten visibly pinker.

"You're both too shy at this rate you'll never end up together, I'm not changing the subject and I am definitely NOT thinking about James."

Alice was, in Lilly's opinion, way more disappointed by this statement than she should have been.

--

/The day continued uneventfully, with Harry slowly realising with more clarity that it was far too easy to fit in with the Marauders. Already he comfortably joked around with them like they were old friends-which, in a way they were-whilst stealing glances at Lilly, hoping to get a chance to talk to her again.

In the afternoon they had Defence Against the Dark Arts, as always a popular subject, and Harry felt himself sit down in the familiar classroom with an ironic grin on his face, it seemed a bit pointless being taught how to defend himself against the dark arts when he had already defeated the darkest and most powerful wizard of all time…not that that meant he couldn't learn anything, he conceded, not wanting to sound arrogant, even in his own mind, it just seemed a bit pointless knowing what the future held.

His jaw dropped however when a familiarly white-bearded figure strode into the room. "What is Dumbledore doing teaching Defence?" he leaned across the desk and muttered to James.

"Oh, they couldn't find a teacher this year and he used to be the Defence Professor before he became headmaster so he's filling in for now."

Harry frowned, "Couldn't find a teacher?"

"Yeah, haven't you heard? No Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher stays for more than year, something horrible always happens to them, they say the job is cursed." Too late Harry remembered that 1977 must be after Voldemort returned to Hogwarts to request the job from Dumbledore and, when refused, cursed the job, he shuddered at the thought.

Dumbledore surveyed the class which quickly fell silent, his gaze alighted, fractionally, on Harry before sweeping on and finally resting on his desk. "Over the past few weeks," he began and Harry was reminded of his private lessons with Dumbledore that seemed so long ago, "we have been reviewing your knowledge of Duelling and, feeling that you have sufficiently grasped the concept of Wand Combat, I feel it would be wise to assess your new-found understanding with a small test." The class groaned audibly and everyone began pulling out their quills.

"A pop quiz? The old codgers off his rocker, he knows this is the hardest thing we've studied yet." Sirius muttered angrily under his breath, reminding Harry oh so much of Ron. Dumbledore was harbouring a mischievous glint in his eye that suggested he found the students' reactions to his announcement rather amusing as he displayed the test questions on the blackboard with a sweep of his wand.

Dumbledore turned and spoke to Harry, barely surprising him when he addressed him by his assumed name, it was, after all, Dumbledore, "Mr Granger, although I know you have not been studying this subject I wish you to attempt the test anyway to allow me to gauge your ability in this area." Harry nodded with quiet confidence, he was pretty sure he could handle the questions on the board, Dumbledore couldn't have chosen a better subject really, except, perhaps, (here he glanced furtively at Remus) werewolves.

Sirius, however, patted Harry consolingly on the shoulder, "Sorry mate, that's really tough."

It was, in fact, even better than Harry had thought. The test was a breeze; writing about the important points of armed combat with a hostile opponent was child's play when you'd experienced it several times first hand. It was unsurprising, then, when Harry looked up, having finished his paper, he found everyone else's heads bowed in concentration and the scratching of quills still audible in the air.

After ten minutes of slowly realising that he still had quite a bit of the lesson left Harry glanced around. He saw Remus, Hermione-like, adding another fact to an answer already two rolls of parchment in length and James counting things off on his fingers, no doubt trying to think of another disarming spell out of the five he was supposed to mention. Peter was scribbling frantically, a look of doomed panic sprawled across his features, Harry continued to look around the room in boredom and was suddenly shocked to find the same expression on the face of his mother, Lilly.

He began to watch her more closely, every few minutes she would scribble a couple of words before returning to cradling her head in her hands in despair, clearly the test wasn't going very well. Finally, she seemed to think of some other strategy and glanced up to see Dumbledore engrossed in marking essays. To Harry's horror she then continued to slowly lean across her desk and glance at the parchment of a boy sitting next to her before returning to her quill and beginning to write, her hand flying across her own parchment.

She was cheating!

Harry couldn't quite believe it, well, he knew that he was no saint himself and his use of the Half Blood Prince's suggestion of a Bezoar in the potion's test two years ago could technically be called cheating but still…it was his mother. He sat, digesting the new information that his mother wasn't perfect after all, until the lesson ended, accompanied by a relieved sigh from the class. He knew it wasn't really any of his business and it was probably just an excuse to get to talk to her, but Harry decided Lilly Evans needed some words of wise advice.

A/N: Sorry if I keep on referring to dormitories as dorms by accident, that's just what we call them at my school! Also, just a reminder that the idea of a time-travel fan fic came to me via TeenLaunch's story Carry On-go read it, it's really good stuff!!

I also worked out that if everyone who read this chapter took just two minutes out of their day to write a review, even if just one word, I would officially be the happiest person in the world. I promise that if you do this for me I will go give everyone in my family a great big hug to relieve the massive swell of love I will feel for all mankind. (Accompanied, of course, by a happy dance and muffin baskets for all!) I am giving you lots of nice 8 page long chapters after all.