James hadn't expected to find himself stuck in the library so late at night, but juggling his schoolwork, learning the enchantments for the map, and trying to figure out what had changed with both Lily and Sirius was proving to be a struggle.

The enchantments themselves weren't too difficult. The main challenge he had there was trying to attach the map into the school wards, so that it could keep track of every person simultaneously without taking too much magic every time. The only thing he'd have to do was figure out a way to minimize the amount of magic he needed to activate it.

James sighed, rubbing his forehead. He wanted nothing more than to fall asleep, but glancing at the prototype map he had, he could see that Sirius and Remus were still awake. And well, he didn't want another awkward encounter with either of them. He knew it was his fault, but he still missed his best friends.

"If only they would tell me about stuff, goddammit," he muttered to himself, snapping the book shut. "I'll even take Evans going back to hating me, as long as they come back to normal."

Shaking his head in disappointment – he couldn't believe he was talking to himself now – James slipped his hand out from under the invisibility cloak and placed the book back on its shelf. He rubbed his eyes again, yawning as he lit up his wand under the cloak and ambled back towards the entrance.

The prototype map showed Sirius pacing up and down in the common room, probably ranting about something or the other, if he wasn't wrong. And James had rarely been wrong about Sirius. Despite what Remus thought, Sirius was the person he was closest to, and he knew that Sirius went back to Grimmauld place for a reason. He just wanted to be let in on what the reason was. That wasn't unreasonable to ask for, was it?

No, it wasn't worth it to think about things like this when he was probably sleep-deprived. Trying to avoid being in the dormitory when Sirius or Remus were awake was an admittedly difficult task since both of them kept long hours. James just didn't want to cause any more problems.

Just as he was about to reach the entry to the library, and leave, the door opened from the outside. Surprisingly, whoever was opening the door knew of the way it creaked when it opened more than halfway, so it couldn't be a first or second year.

"Sneak into the library, she says," the person muttered, sounding bitter. "It's easy enough to return books that way. Sure it is, for a goddamn criminal! I just want to get better at dueling, not a crash course on how to get away with petty crime!"

Normally, James would've ignored a fellow late-night interloper, but he froze when the familiar voice registered in his head despite his exhausted.

That was definitely Lily Evans.

James had two options – he could ignore Lily, like he would ignore any other person breaking into the library and the restricted section, or he could follow her and see what she was doing. Without any hesitation, James followed her, glad he had his invisibility cloak on.

In under thirty seconds it was clear that Evans was horrible at breaking into places. She was loud, hadn't worn a single disguise, and had revealed exactly why she was there and because of whom. James wondered why McKinnon had decided to take Evans under her wing and looking at the abysmal display Evans had put up, he somewhat understood why she had been complaining at the Quidditch match a few weeks ago.

Although maybe James shouldn't judge her too much. He was hiding under an invisibility cloak that was spelled so no one could hear him either, which was definitely cheating.

"Damn Ellie and her idea of a fun challenge," Evans muttered, but then slumped slightly. "At least I can return that damned book now though."

And James saw she was returning a book. As soon as Evans walked back towards the entrance, he slipped to the section where she had left the book and picked it up.

He stared at the book, mind whirling to connect the dots. Every little thing that had happened over the past few months carefully slid into place – Lily's change in behavior, the way she had ditched the Slytherin and was spending more time being nice to him, the kidnapped children, Sirius' change in behavior. Now that he looked at this book, it was all so obvious, he was dumbfounded he hadn't thought of it before.

But how could he have thought of it before? It was such an outlandish theory, even looking at the book didn't make it the exact one. He still had to find proof that the theory was accurate, but for now, he supposed he could read the book and find out. At least this took care of one aspect of his problems.

He blinked at the book once again, smothering the hysterical giggles that bubbled up his throat. The title of the book stared back at him.

The Terrific Text of Time Travel by Tyrene Travers.

James shook his head again. Sirius could have told him about this, unless… unless he had only figured out about this time travel during the winter break. And then James had gone and ruined it. Dammit, he should know better than to lose his temper.

Walking out of the library, James quickly conjured up a book cover that he was extremely familiar with – the Charms Guide – and wrapped it around the book. It was a dangerous thing, time travel, dangerous enough to lead to death.

James knew the rules surrounding time travel, and he knew what would happen if he was caught reading this book. It was a topic that was rarely discussed in arithmancy and advanced runes, forget in any other subject. He knew that his father would be in trouble if James was found with this book. But he also knew that something bigger was happening, something important.

So, no one else could find out about this.

Short chapter this time!