I accepted the lemon drop, if only because I was so incredibly confused at the moment and rather worn out from the day's events. Frank time-travelling wasn't the most shocking, nor was Frank yelling at Dumbledore (though I had never really seen the kind-hearted boy yell before).
No, what shocked me was the Frank was eighteen or so, not the sixth year I knew today. His time-travel was different from Lily and I's. And he didn't seem to know what was going on, so this wasn't purposeful.
Which meant I had both another thing to explain and another thing to hide.
I propped Frank up in the seat next to me and sat down on a separate chair. Frank looked more fierce and angry than I'd ever seen him before, a long scar across his forehead and hair messier than usual. I immediately felt bad.
"Do you know how he got here?" I asked Dumbledore.
"Not a clue," he admitted cheerily. "I was hoping you would."
I gave him a flat look.
"Why does everyone expect me to know how to solve this sort of thing?" I asked.
Dumbledore blinked at me. "Well, do you?"
"No, of course I don't, I'm only seventeen!" I said incredulously.
Dumbledore's face fell, because he'd obviously hoped I had some sort of a clue. "Oh."
I bit back a sarcastic response and sighed; then I pulled out my wand, and pointed it at Frank. "Rennervate."
Frank shot upward, eyes wide, drawing his wand as well and shooting off a stunning spell that nearly hit me in the face.
"Woah, dude, knock it off!" I said, dropping my wand and holding up my hands in surrender. "I already fought giant spiders today, I will not fight you too."
Frank narrowed his eyes. "How can I be sure you're really James? James would be seventeen, not- not fifteen again."
"Would be, isn't," I said. "I don't know how much ol' Dumbles has explained, but you've time-travelled. Just like me and Lils. Sort of like me and Lils. Me and Lils got stuck in our thirteen-year-old bodies, you stayed you."
He still looked suspicious, so I rolled my eyes and picked up my wand again.
"I swear by my magic that I'm James Potter, the year is 1975, and both of us have time-travelled," I said. After a few seconds passed, I lit my wand with a quick lumos and extinguished it just as quickly.
Frank dropped his wand.
"Merlin," he muttered. "It is you. It really is you."
Then he sat back down rather heavily and rubbed his forehead.
"I'm not dreaming?" he asked.
"Nope," I said. "What? Not glad to see you?"
"Glad to see you?" he repeated in shock. "James, you and Lily disappeared two years ago. We were told you died. And now I've found out you've been hanging out her, safe and sound, this whole time? Where were you when the Death Eaters burned Hogwarts to the ground, huh? Where were you when I had my fiancée stolen from me? Am I glad to see you?"
My eyes had gone wide at this in horror.
"Alice?" I said; Frank looked away from me, eyes hard. Dumbledore seemed as alarmed as I was by this turn of events.
"We were fighting Bellatrix," Frank said softly. "We had the upper hand, but then... then Alice fell. And I didn't get there soon enough."
"She- she's dead?" I asked.
Frank's hands balled into fists. "I almost wish it were so... Bellatrix took her and disappeared. We found her, days later... broken beyond repair. Mad."
"Mad," I repeated, swallowing hard. "Oh."
None of us spoke for a while. Eventually, it was Dumbledore who broke the silence.
"We need a way to explain your presence," he said. "James and Lily took over their own bodies, and so it was much easier. You, however, have a younger self here."
Frank shrugged rather stiffly.
"If we altered his appearance, we could say he was my cousin or something," I offered.
Frank gave me a harsh look.
"Or... maybe not," I said, holding up my hands in surrender.
Dumbledore gave Frank a slightly disapproving look, pulled out his wand, and waved it towards the irate man. A second later, his hair was a reddish colour and had grown a few inches, his skin had paled slightly, and his eyes had turned blue.
"There," said Dumbledore. "Now you're my grandson, Francis Dumbledore who goes by Frank. Of course, should the two of you be in the same room, I suppose you could go by Francis."
Frank nodded, avoiding my gaze.
"As you are older than our seventh years," continued Dumbledore, you can be the DADA professor's assistant. And don't worry about concealing your identity- he can know, and will help you keep the glamour spells strong."
"Thank you, Professor," Frank said after a moment.
Dumbledore smiled kind of sadly. "You'll find that you'll like it here, Frank. It's quite different from what you remember."
Frank didn't reply.
I walked Frank down to my dad's office. When I got there, Sirius and Regulus looked bored out of their minds with a stack of papers in front of each of them. Frank gave Sirius a strange look. Sirius glanced briefly at me when we walked in, before dramatically flopping backwards.
"I hope you're here to rescue us, Jamie," he moaned.
"Nope, sorry," I said with a cheeky grin. "Just bringing Francis here to meet the professor."
"Francis?" said Regulus, glancing up. "Oh, hello Francis. Nice to meet you. We're the school troublemakers. I'm Regulus and that's Sirius and you've already met James."
"We're the three that try to get ourselves killed at least once a week," said Sirius sagely.
"No, that's you," said Regulus. "James and I have some self-preservation. I'm the one that wreaks havoc on unsuspecting students, teachers, ghosts, and snake-men. And James is the one trying to keep us from dying."
Just then, Dad walked into the room. "Oh, James, you're back. Great. Mum says you're grounded for a week."
"Only a week?" Sirius said hopefully.
"No," said Dad, "you and Reg are grounded for a month."
"Darn," they both said, pouting.
Dad's eyes landed on Frank. "Who's this?"
"That's Francis," said Regulus.
"Actually," I said, "it's Frank Longbottom from the future. He accidentally time-travelled and is pretending to be Dumbledore's grandson, Francis, and your new assistant."
Sirius's jaw dropped. "That's Frank! Man, why didn't you tell us?"
He hopped up, ran up to Frank, and slapped him on the back, then proceeded to pull out his sword and start chattering about it, boldly showing off some moves. Regulus hopped out of his seat and floated over, hanging upside-down in front of the poor, unsuspecting Frank with a wide grin.
"Because I knew you'd do that," I said dryly.
Dad grabbed the two of them by the collar and pulled them backwards. "Alright, you two, knock it off. Don't overwhelm the poor man. Sirius, remember he's used to you being dead."
Sirius blinked then beamed. "Yeah, I know!"
I face-palmed.
Dad sighed. "Go on, you three. Back to the Common Room. Frank- Francis? Well, whatever I'm supposed to call you, follow me."
I and my brothers shrugged and left the room (after Regulus reluctantly tugged his shoes on), Sirius and Regulus looking all too pleased to be getting out of doing more paperwork. As we walked, I let my cheerful demeanour fall. It seemed to me that Frank was furious with me. To be honest, sometimes I was mad at myself for abandoning the future like I did. But I didn't imagine my presence would have made that big of a difference. Nevertheless, Frank's angry words still resonated in my mind, and the image of the snarl on his face was crystal clear.
We were halfway back when Sirius noticed something was up.
"Uh-oh," he said. "James has got that face again."
"Well, I don't usually change my face," I snapped sarcastically back. Sirius's eyebrows rose at this.
"Someone's in that mood," he said.
"What mood?" I said defensively.
"The one where you blame yourself for everything bad that's ever happened in the world and start thinking about the what ifs, and eventually you get yourself so worked up that only Lilyflower can talk you out of it," said Sirius.
"Oh, I thought he just ate something sour," said Regulus.
I blinked. "This doesn't happen that often, does it?"
"Yes, it does," they both intoned.
"Oh," I said awkwardly. "I... I was just thinking. About how bad it is in the future. And if I could have helped."
Sirius cuffed me over the head. "How many times do we have to tell you not to dwell on it?"
I shrugged.
"Oh, James," said Regulus, smiling rather wisely. "I think we all need to learn not to dwell on the past, but also not to focus on the future. You should just live in the now."
Sirius and I stopped to stare at him.
He gave us an innocent look. "What? I read it in a book."
"Oh, okay," said Sirius and I in relief.
By now, we'd reached the Common Room.
"Fiddlesticks," I said absently and the portrait swung open.
"You boys look like you're up to something- again," said the Fat Lady rather crossly.
"Aren't we always?" replied Sirius cheekily.
She harrumphed and closed the portrait, and the three of us jogged up to our dorm.
"I know what ought to cheer you up," said Sirius as we walked in. Peter looked up from his book with a curious gaze. "Try that juggling trick you were talking about the other day."
"I dunno," I said.
"Do it, Prongs!" said Peter eagerly. "I love juggling."
"Well... alright," I said.
Peter may have loved juggling, but the moment I started trying to juggle three fireballs he squeaked and leapt for cover. Sirius and Regulus cheered, and I grinned widely- until I dropped one and lit my bed on fire. And then I promptly dropped the other two. And then Peter panicked and ran from the room.
"Whoops," I said, blinking as Sirius and Regulus jumped back from the flames.
"In retrospect," admitted Sirius, "that wasn't the best idea we've had."
"No kidding," I said.
"Is anyone going to put that out?" asked Regulus.
I reddened and was about to do so myself when McGonagall herself skidded into the room, quickly followed by a sheepish looking eter. I quickly tried to look innocent, but there was no need. Her eyes landed on the flaming bed and then flew to Sirius.
"Sirius Black, you have ten seconds to explain this," she said, seething.
Sirius gawped. "Me? Why does everyone assume it's my fault?"
"Because it's always your fault," said Regulus.
"But it was James," whined Sirius.
"If you think of it," I said, "it was your fault."
McGonagall ignored this and turned her hawk-like gaze on me. "Mr. Potter?"
"I, uh, I was trying to juggle," I said awkwardly, giving up all hopes of lying and surviving her wath.
"Juggle?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
"Fireballs," I added.
I waited.
"You were trying to juggle fireballs," she repeated dubiously.
I nodded.
"And what, pray tell, compelled you to do such an irresponsible, frankly stupid thing such as juggling fireballs?" she asked slowly.
I pointed to my brothers. "They told me to try the juggling trick."
"Sirius told him to try the juggling trick," corrected Regulus.
"The bed's still on fire," Peter pointed out awkwardly. "And... now so are James's robes."
I yelped and, regardless of McGonagall, quickly doused the flames with water. McGonagall stared.
"Detention, I think," she said faintly. "But not with me."
"Why not?" asked Regulus curiously.
"Because I need to talk to Albus tonight about retiring," she said flatly, before leaving the room. We stared after her.
"Think she's serious?" asked Peter.
Sirius scoffed. "Of course not, I'm Sirius."
"Yeah," I said wryly, "and that'd be why she wants to retire."
A/N: So I'm not dead. I'm not abandoning this. And I'm also shocked to see that I haven't updated since February. Geez. I wrote this in two days in my free time. What is wrong with me? Anyway, you might be happy to learn that I've finished my trilogy. ^_^ Reg's quote is from the beginning of book two, Faith. Unfortunately, only book one is out in the world. I want to take the whole trilogy to a professional publisher. :D
Now a huge thanks to my wonderful readers who have stuck through this all, and to my reviewers who keep me writing: N. E. Person, Imaginer.012, Frosted Soul, jeremiah123 Guest, and jkawesome!
I hope you enjoyed!
I don't own Harry Potter.