"Centaur droppings."
"Nope."
"Abracadabra."
"Sorry, dear, still wrong." The Fat Lady replied. Over the course of the past half-hour, her usually kindly tone had fallen from suspicious to just plain bored, as Harry slouched further and further against the edge of her frame, until he was sat on the cold stone floor with his head in his hands.
"Where is a Hermione Granger when you need one?"
"That`s not the password, but I`m sure your 'lion she-stranger' will turn up soon enough, don`t fret."
"I didn`t mean… well, sort of, but…never mind."
"Mmhmm. I bet that Ravenclaw knocker never has to put up with such persistent infiltration."
"For Merlin`s sake, how many times….. I`m a Gryffindor!"
Behind him, a defiant female voice replied, "Well, you`re certainly not a Hufflepuff, that`s for sure."
For a moment, as he looked up at the unexpected redhead before him, Harry almost registered her as Ginny or his mother. But no, Ginny was decades away, and neither of the girls had the dementor-attack blue eyes of this person before him.
"…and you`re not Sirius Black either, despite what your back says…. And I`m pretty sure James would have just used his broom to get in a window already if he was not allowed in this way." With every word, this girl was making the Fat Lady smugger and smugger, as if her past half hour of guarding was some of her best work. "So who exactly are you supposed to be? Let me guess, this is some sort of Polyjuice Potion. Well, you messed up a bit, James had green eyes and you stole the wrong uniform."
"Well, you`re right in deducting that I`m not James or Sirius, but I am a Gryffindor. I was in the common room just a little while ago, too, except now she," Harry gestured to the Fat Lady, "won`t let be back in, or even explain myself."
The redhead nodded. "So you slipped in earlier, but failed to remember the password for your second sweep? Well, you`re certainly not a Ravenclaw, one of them would have written the password down at least. Go back to your house, pal, you`re wasting your time."
Fantastic. The majority of the people who could possibly vouch for Harry were either already inside the tower or traipsing around the Forbidden Forrest with a werewolf, and he certainly wasn`t about to bring this matter to Dumbledore.
"Look, I`m Mattie Bell`s cousin, she was with me earlier when I walked in, so why don`t…"
"-Now I know you`re lying. Mattie doesn't have any cousins that would be around to even try and get into the Gryffindor Tower. Reg didn`t put you up to this, did he? "
"I swear I`m telling the truth! Please, if you go inside and tell her what I just told you, she`ll be able to tell you I`m not lying."
"Because you`ve impervioused her or something, right? Mate, if that`s true, you`ve got less than thirty seconds before I hex you off the tower."
Holding up his hands, Harry began to back away as the girl raised her wand. Either way, there was no way out but to lie. "I swear, I`m Harry Finnigan, Mattie`s cousin and seeker for the Gryffindor Quiddich team…"
"There is no Gryffindor seeker, and apparently the only good hopeful is currently holed up in the hospital wing. I`d suggest you do some better research next time around, if you survive for a next time, that is."
"Please, I…" As Harry`s feet slowly began to lift off the floor, he struggled for control while the resolved redhead levitated him out an open window.
"One more time. Who are you, and what are you trying to pull?"
Icy night wind bit at him, the ground too far below in the darkness to be seen, and Harry wondered if the Marauders would stumble across his broken body in the midnight adventure. Would Remus be hungry enough to nick a bite? Would James Potter spare a tear for his fallen seeker, and perhaps upon further examination or tests after Mattie was forced to reveal the truth, son? Would Mattie know what to warn them about? Would Sirius Black still want his robes back?
"Ha…"
"-Mel? What are you….Harry!"
Lily Evans cast a counter curse on the body bind, and hurriedly levitated him back in, turning only to Harry`s attacker once his feet had been set safely back on the floor.
"MELODY WILLIAMSON, WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING?!" Bellowed Lily in a very Mrs. Weasleyish manner.
It was Melody`s turn to stumble for words. "I, er, was just getting this malevolent would-be intruder to…"
"I thought we talked about suspending people from dangerous heights! You, of all people, should know better, you might have killed him!"
"Well see, I thought he might have impervioused Mattie and I was just trying to scare him into admitting the truth…I was never going to let him go, only slip a little to frighten him a bit."
"That was an incredibly…!"
"Lily dear," The Fat Lady cut in, "Do take in consideration the fact that she was doing it to preserve the very safety and honor of her friend and Gryffindor. The boy was extremely suspicious, a strange outsider hanging around, claiming to have forgotten the password."
"Fine." She seethed, "I won`t tell Professor McGonagall. But you`re the one who is going to have to explain to Mattie."
Still not looking totally convinced, Melody shrugged, apparently deciding Harry would fit out the common room windows if necessary. "Troll`s Blood."
Troll`s Blood! A far off recollection of a certain Halloween Hogwarts incident passed through Harry`s mind as he finally ducked into the common room.
It took no time for Lily, who looked like she could have gone a couple rounds with a troll herself from the fury on her face, to narrow in on Mattie, one of the only people left lingering by the fire. As the crazy train of approached the couch where she sat, Mattie lazily looked up from her chess game and raised a hand in greeting.
"Hey kid, where`ve you been? I was getting worried there for a second, especially when Frank mentioned that the Marauders had you run off on some errand and then promptly disappeared themselves… But I see my friends managed to pull you out of whatever mess the guys made."
Lily cast a sideways glare to Melody. "Actually, when I found Harry, it wasn`t the Marauders that were giving him trouble."
"That`s good, I was really concerned that…"
"….I might have been levitating him out a window at the time, though." Melody cut in. Harry wasn`t quite sure whether or not to feel insulted when his "cousin" broke up into peals of laughter, much to the amusement of his mother.
"She almost killed him!"
"Nah, she wouldn`t have." Mattie replied, sobering up. "But why exactly did you think that was necessary?"
"Well, the Fat Lady and I were under the impression he was trying to sneak in to the common room, or had you impervioused. I was trying to get him to admit what he`d done when Lily came along." Looking to Harry, she added, "Sorry about that, by the way."
"It`s fine."
She was sorry, that was clear enough. But Harry could tell something else was going on too, and the way Melody looked at him remember something she`d said earlier when he had been trying to convince her of his innocence. Mattie doesn`t have any cousins…do some better research next time…
Clearly, there was still some residual suspicion, and no matter how many people authenticated the cousinhood, Mattie`s best friend wasn`t buying it. Hopefully Harry could solve the Lily and James problem and focus on finding a way out before any of her suspicions became confirmed.
"You were just trying to protect the integrity and safety of our house, and it wouldn`t have been the first time someone tried to weasel their way into our common room uninvited. On match nights especially, we get a lot of imposters." Mattie said reassuringly, as her bishop backed the opponent`s king into a corner. "Checkmate, sorry Alice."
The future Mrs. Longbottom sighed. "Alright, good game. Next time, though, you`ll be the one who has to be on Roommate Intervention duty."
"Mary`s still slouched over the star charts?"
"She`s been at it for hours now, barely even stopped for lunch."
"I love Mar, but someone needs to pry her away before she goes completely mad." Turning to Harry, Mattie added, "She`s got this idea stuck in her head that it`s possible to calculate recurring patterns in the stars correlating to certain events so that one might possibly be able to predict the future, or at least see trouble coming like a centaur."
There was a lot of trouble to come, but Harry wasn`t sure how a ball of light was going to know more about the looming destruction than anyone else in 1976. If Harry was a star, he would use Morse Code to tell everyone to hide out in Switzerland until all this Voldemort business had passed. "That`s…"
"…it`s a little mad, to think you can become a seer by staring at some far away dots, but she`s a good person." Lily said kindly.
"We should bring her to the kitchen, that always cheers her up." Mel suggested, ignoring the excessive disproval radiating off Lily at the mention of sneaking off so late.
Mattie tossed Harry his clothes and idly walked over to stand next to him. "You guys go ahead, I`ll meet you there. My dad would kill me if he heard I didn`t even help Harry settle into his new room."
"See you later, Harry!" Lily said, as she and Alice tromped up the stairs. Melody hesitated a bit before following, and only after a brief exchange of silent questioning with Mattie did she give a nod of acknowledgement to Harry did she too leave.
Not many people were left lingering at that point, but Mattie still insisted on pulling him over to a desolate window seat before they could talk. "Mel didn`t scare you too badly, did she? That wasn`t personal, I promise."
"No, that wasn`t too bad. In comparison to what Sirius tried to do, it was nothing."
"Merlin, I forgot about that….What he do? Frank wouldn`t tell me more than that you were sent to go steal Mrs. Norris, but that doesn't sound too bad."
"That`s what I was thinking, until my dad pulled me into a secret passage and saved me from what Sirius had evidently meant as a hazing courtesy of a pack of Slytherins."
"Oh Not-Pot, I`m so sorry. Lucky James had a change of heart, but if this is how Sirius Black thinks he can treat my fake my cousin and get away with it, he`s in for a big surprise."
"What are you going to do?'
"Don`t worry about it. So James saved you, huh? I guess he`s warming up to you a bit."
"I cleared up the whole Lily thing, so at least he doesn't despise me anymore."
"That`s good, at least, it makes half our job easier."
"Our job? Look, you don`t owe me anything. You shouldn`t have to do this…"
Mattie twirled her wand impatiently. "You didn`t honestly think you`d be doing that alone, did you? In case you haven't gathered by now, I`m basically an expert at stunts like this. Besides, you`re the kid of my friends, and I do actually owe you for that Quiddich thing. When I make deals, I don`t do things halfway."
"Look, thanks for the help, but I can handle setting up my parents from here on out. I don`t want to distract you from whatever you were meant to be doing during this time, it could further throw off the outcome of the future."
"Are you doubting my ability to multitask, Future Boy? Anyway, anyone who is trying to get James Potter and Lily Evans together is going to need all the help they can get. James Potter himself has been trying to do that for six years to no avail."
"I was born under these odds."
"No, you were born under odds that didn`t involve another wild-haired troublemaking Quiddich star roaming the halls. Face it, pal, it`s going to take a miracle as it is to save you."
Good thing Lily didn`t know about the Chosen One thing, or the almost hazing, for that matter.
"She isn`t still friends with Snape, is she?"
"The oily little creep from Slytherin? Merlin no. If there`s anyone she can't stand being around more than the Marauders, it`s him. She thinks Sirius is a dog, but at least he`s got some redeeming qualities, you know?"
Harry was too busy having a fit of laughter, much to Mattie`s confusion, to confirm or deny this statement.
"By the way," he started, once he`d regained the ability to form coherent words. "Did you manage to hunt down a time turner?"
"I think Mary might have one for her Tuesday classes, I`ll have to ask. In the meantime, if you get the chance to pop into the library, you should look up if time turners can be fixed or jinxed to go forward. It might take a lot of Maths to figure out how many hours you need to go, but I`m sure there`ll be a way to get you back."
"Okay, thanks." The weight of two decades was beginning to make an impact on Harry`s eyelids. Starting for the boys dorms, he tried not to think about all the ways he could have possibly messed up the future in the past few hours.
"Harry?"
She squeezed his arm. "However this works out in the end, I`m sure your parents will be extremely proud."
"I just hope they`ll be able to tell me that themselves one day." Harry said, turning away before he could spill the details of the previous fate of Lily and James Potter.