Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

Third Person

Harry led the group down a dark corridor, named the Department of Mysteries, towards a black door that had a large golden door knob on it.

"This is it." He said ominously. He had been having dreams about this place for months. Luna looked around, fascinated, whilst the rest of them huddled together expecting death eaters to jump out  at any moment.

Once they had gone into the room, the sight before them was unbelievable. Tiny glass balls that looked like the ones that they used in Divination were perched on small golden stands for as far as the eye could see. They were prophecies. Harry moved forwards, as if he was searching for someone, muttering the numbers under his breath, the others having to jog to keep up with him. The lights from their wands being refelcted off of the clear, glass balls.

"Ninety-two, Ninety-three, Ninety-four, Ninety-five..." Harry stopped suddenly, pointing his wand at the floor. The others looked at him, puzzled. "He should be here."

"Harry," Neville said worriedly. "Its got your name on it." Harry rushed quickly towards it and reached out. The others held their breath as he picked it up, and as soon as he brought it level with his eyes, it began to speak, the grey-ish mist swirling absently.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. And the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal, but he shall have power the Dark Lord knows not. For neither can live while the other survives..." The all stared in shock at the prophecy. It had been predicted just before Harry was born.

"Harry!" Hermione called and Harry turned around to see a man wearing a mask walk towards them slowly.

"Where's Sirius?" He asked in a confident voice. He must have sounded braver than he felt, because he couldn't help but shake a little.

"You know, you really should learn to tell the differece between dreams," the man pulled his wand across his face and the mask melted away to reveal Lucius Malfoy. "And reality." They all stepped back slightly. "You saw only what the Dark Lord wanted you to see. Now hand me the prophecy."

"If you do anything to us, I'll break it." Harry warned. An evil laugh was heard behind Lucius and Sirius recognised it. Bellatrix.

Sirius' POV

I heard the laugh and froze. No, please, anyone but my deranged cousin!

"He knows how to play," Bellatrix appeared beside Lucius. "Itty, bitty baby. Potter." Of course, she would notice HIM first and not her own cousin.

"Bellatrix Lestrange." Oh, so she married that stupid Lestrange boy in Slytherin. Ew.

"Neville Longbottom, is it? How's mum and dad?" She asked evilly. Neville pointed his wand at her.

"Better now they're about to be avenged!" Harry held Neville back and I walked forwards.

"Hello, cuz." Bellatrix's mouth dropped open in surprise and I laughed at the sight. I was also aware that Harry, Ron, Neville, Luna and Ginny were looking at me in confusion.

"Si...Sirius? How did you...when...you're..." Her voice was full of surprise and I could hear James sniggering.

"Sirius? Did she just say Sirius?" Harry asked me and I waved an arm to dimiss it.

"Tell you later, Harry." I turned back to my cousin. "Do you recall, back in Hogwarts, when me, James, Remus, Peter and Lily went missing back in fifth-year?" She stiffened.

"Dumbledore told everyone that you caught a virus and had gone to St Mungo's."

"Did he? He probably just made that up so that he could figure out what happened to us. We were actually sent 18 years into the future. Ha, you got old." She sneered at me.

"So did you. Anyway, I was glad of the peace. You and you infernal friends were constantly pissing all of us off. We even had a little party." My mouth dropped open. "Oh don't look so surprised. We've always tried to get rid of you, you're a disgrace to our family!" I raised my wand and Lucius spoke calmly.

"Now, let's everybody just calm down, shall we? All we want is that prophecy." Easy for him to say, he doesn't have a bloody annoying cousin.

"Why did Voldemort need me to come and get this?" Harry asked and Bellatrix gasped.

"You dare speak his name? You filthy half-blood!" And this is my cousin. How in Merlin's name are we even related.

"It's alright he's just a curious lad, aren't you?" Lucius said again. The calmness in his voice was pissing me off now. He was probably just doing it to get his own way. "Prophecies can only be retrieved by those about whom they are made. Which is lucky for you really." I had now stepped back and a deathly silence had overcome the room. "Haven't you always wondered the reason for the connection between you and the Dark Lord?" Suddenly we all noticed the deatheaters that were creeping up on us from all edges. Each of us paired up and pointed our wands at them, whilst Harry and Lucius spoke. "Why he was unable to kill you, when you were just an infant?" No Harry, don't do it! "Don't you want to know the secret of your scar?" Oh Merlin, that'll get him. "All the answers are there, Potter, in your hand. All you have to do is give it to me." He's dragging it out a bit.

"I've waited 14 years..." Oh Merlin, he's going to do it, we're all doomed! DOOMED! Wow, I'm slightly insane.

"I know.. Lucius still can't do sympathy...

I guess I can wait a little longer. NOW!" 

"STUPEFY!" We all threw spells at the deatheaters then ran for it, trying to get back to the door that we arrived in. I ended up with Luna, Neville and Lily as we got separated from the others.

"Stupefy!" I hit a deatheater straight in the face and did a little victory dance, before being dragged away by Lily who had a look of panic on her face. Unfortunately, we walked straight into another deatheater who grinned horribly at us. He shot a non verbal spell at Lily, which pushed her back adnd froze me into place, then walked over to her looking evil. Suddenly, James jumped out of nowhere.

"Don't touch her! Expulso!" The man, wide eyed, was suddenly pushed back and landed on the floor with a satisfying crack.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Neville froze the deatheater, stopping it from having any chances of sending a spell back.

"Well done Neville." Luna smiled. James walked over to Lily and helped her up carefully, their noses almost touching. Lily blushed and moved her head away slightly and I smiled at them. I'd always wanted them to get together, but James had always been an idiot towards her best friend, Snivellus. I supposed I didn't help either. We all ran, trying to find the others and in the end we were all a big group again. Suddenly a flying deatheater caught our attention as he hovered menacingly towards us.

"Reducto!" Ginny shouted bravely, hitting the target. However it sent a wave that knocked the shelves over. We froze, hoping that it wouldn't come towards us. Slowly but surely though, the shelves were being knocked back, one by one towards us.

"Get back to the door!" Harry yelled. We all ran and dodged through the shelves desparately trying to  find the door again without being hit in the head with prophecies, but thankfully we finally got there. We pushed open the door and ran through it to find no floor there. I gasped as I fell what felt like hundreds of feet before finally coming to a hault, then dropping onto the ground. I scrambled up from the floor, picking up my wand and walking up to the others, who were stood together, brushing themselves off.

"Department of Mysteries. They got that bit right, didn't they?" Ron muttered, sounding slightly annoyed. Harry hadn't been listening though. Him and Luna had been walking towards an empty archway.

"The voices. Can you tell what they're saying?" I looked at him as if he was mad.

"There aren't any voices, Harry. Let's get out of here." Hermione said.

"Harry's gone mad." Lily said, looking slightly pale and worried.

"I hear them too..." Luna mused, walking towards the archway with Harry.

"Harry, it's just an empty archway," Hermione insisted. "Please, Harry." I started to get the feeling that something bad was going to happen, and unfortunately my fears were confirmed when a whooshing sound was heard from where we had fallen.

"Get behind me." Harry ordered and we all immediately obeyed, our wands raised, but a large black cloud came and covered us as someone grabbed me viciously and pulled me away.

 James' POV

I saw Lily looking pale as Harry ordered us to get behind him, so I walked over to her.

"Are you ok?" I asked her and she nodded feebly. "You know I can tell when you're lying, right?" She didn't answer and I felt sorry for her. She was probably not used to anything like this, whereas me and the Marauders were used to danger and tight escapes. I took in a sharp breath as I contemplated doing something that would help to comfort her, but I didn't want her to blow up in my face. After seconds of wondering I decided that there was no harm in trying, so I softly took her hand in mine. I suddenly felt a wave of emotions wash over me as, what felt like a bolt of lightning, hit me hard confusing my senses. The rush of emotions that ran through me as I entwined my fingers with hers was massive and it startled me that I could even feel this. Was it even possible to like someone this much? Could this be what love felt like? I watched her recoil slightly, but  then she relaxed and smiled weakly at me. I was surprised that she didn't pull away, but I didn't have any longer to think about it as we were smothered by a large black cloud. I dropped to the floor quickly, pulling Lily with me and held onto a jagged piece of stone that was poking out of the floor, knowing that it was the deatheaters. The cloud suddenly disappeared and I jumped up to see that the deatheaters had all gotten hold of everyone besides me, Lily and Harry. A large menacing looking deatheater had his wand pointed lazily at Remus whilst having his arm around his neck. I still had Lily's hand in mine and she was holding on tightly, so I didn't let go. Sirius seemed to have been taken by Bellatrix whose arm was also around Neville, who was wimpering slightly.

"Did you actually believe...or were you truly naive enough to think that children stood a chance against us?" I growled, but Lily squeased my hand and gave me a waning look as Lucius got closer to us and Harry. "I'll make this simple for you, Potter. Give me the prophecy now or watch your friends...die."

"Don't give it to him Harry." Neville said loudly, but Bellatrix shushed him and pushed her wand closer to his throat. How dare she. Suddenly a bright flash of light appeared behin Lucius and a man that looked like he could have been Sirius in 18 years. Haha, how silly is that.

"Get away from my godson." Ok, I take it back, it must be him. I cheered as older Sirius punch Lucius in the face and more bright lights appeared, bringing more people that were obviously the good guys to our aid. They all got stuck in, stunning and freezing as many deatheaters as they could. The older Sirius then turned to us and his eyes widened in surprise as recognition sparked hin his light, grey coloured eyes. "Ok...this is very weird." There was silence as his eyes trailed down to our hands. "So that's how you  two got so close!" He exclaimed and we jumped apart slightly, feeling awkward.  He then turned to Harry as my mind was reeling. 'So that's how you got so close...' What was he talking about? Unless... "Now, listen to me. Take the others and get out of here." Older Sirius ordered.

"What? No, I'm staying with you." Harry protested. So brave, I'm very proud.

"You've done beautifully. Now, let me take it from here."

"Black." Lucius had gain conciousness and was sauntering towards them with a fellow deatheater.

"Expelliarmus!" Me and Harry yelled at the helping deatheater, then we turned to grin at each other.

"Nice one James." Older Sirius said and the two of us froze. He seemed to be talking to Harry AND me. Wow that's weird.

"Avada Kedavra!!" Older Sirius froze as the three of us spun round on the spot. Bellatrix was stood on a jagged rock, her eyes wide with excitement. Bitch. We all watched in horror as Sirius fell backwards into the veil and disappeared. I felt anger rip through me. I wanted to kill Bellatrix with everything in me, even if that meant using the unforgivable curse. Suddenly I was grabbed by Remus and I saw Harry being grabbed by what looked like an older Remus, who Harry managed to struggle from. I on the other hand shrank to the floor as my friends crowded round.

"James." Lily's voice was heard above the others as she placed a soft hand on the side of my face to comfort me.

"Evans...you're so beautiful..." I heard younger Remus and older Remus chuckle.

"Always did go all soppy when you're upset Prongs." They both said at the same time, which caused younger Remus to look at his older self in confusion.

"I remember this happening back when I was in fifth year. I'm older you, Moony." Younger Remus' eyes widened in surprise, but he got over it quickly. Sirius was stood standing, looking horrified at the veil.

"This means, I've always known how I died..." I stood up and put a comforting arm around his shoulders.

"We'll make sure that you live life to the full before you do Padfoot. Extra pranking and making the Slytherin's lives hell." We heard Lily sigh exasperatedly but she didn't say anything. We saw the others move towards where Harry had chased Bellatrix, so we decided to follow them. When we emerged into the main Ministry we saw Harry lying on the floor, posessed by Voldemort and Dumbledore was sat by him, trying to get Voldemort out. It was heartbreaking to watch and Hermione put a comforting hand on my shoulder. Suddenly there was a grey cloud as something came out of Harry and Voldemort was stood over him, talking in a deadly whisper. Thankfully, ministry people started coming out of the fireplaces and Fudge stopped in his tracks.

"He's back." He muttered as Voldemort disappeared.  I rolled my eyes. Finally he sees the truth. The ministry people dusted Harry off and suddenly there were reporters everywhere, but thankfully Dumbledore let him away with us and we all flooed shakily back to Dumbledore's office. Unfortunately, Snivel...Professor Snape was there waiting for us. Harry then chose that moment to face us.

"Ok, you need to tell us the truth now. Who are you?" I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I'm Merlin, the greatest wizard in the world." Lily then chose that moment to slap me round the face.

"James! Tell the truth." I sighed. Wait...she called me James.

"Hey Evans, you just called me James, does that mean I can call you Lily?" She crossed her arms and avoided my eyes so I smirked. Snape who had been stood silently stiffened and gasped, muttering 'I knew it' under his breath.

"Ok, fine, the name's James Potter and I was born on the 27th of March, also known as Prongs." I saw  the Weasley twins perk up slightly at the name.

"Prongs? Did you just say Prongs?" One of the twins asked.

"Creater of the Marauder's map, Prongs?" I grinned and nodded.

"Wicked." They both said together. Whereas Harry had gone pale.

"Dad? You're alive...?" I frowned sympathetically at the poor boy.

"Actually son, I'm from the past. Severus left some sweets that he knew Wormtail would find and we all ate them, bringing us 18 years in the future."

"That worked? Albus you told everyone that they had been sick and were sent to St Mungos." Snape sounded confused, and partly proud of himself that made me want to punch him. Didn't he know how much trouble he'd caused? He could have endangered us all! "Wait, you called me Severus?" I rolled my eyes as if it was obvious.

"You sent me into the future and I met my son who is my age. I think I owe you something seeing as I don't seem to see my son any time past his first birthday." Snape just stayed silent, but he looked thouroughly surprised by my nice behaviour. Remus then stepped foward.

"I think you know me in the future, but I'm Remus John Lupin and I was born on the 10th of March and I have lycanthropy and most of you already probably know. And I'm also known as Moony, one of the Marauders."

"Are you serious?" The twins asked together, referring to his lycanthropy. Sirius pushed Remus slightly out of the way, grinning. I immediately knew what he was going to say.

"Nope, but I am." The rest of us groaned and I shoved him playfully.

"Padfoot, that joke got old back in first year..." Sirius put his hand up to my face, which shut me up.

"ANYWAY, I'm Sirius Black, I was born on the 17th of October {A/N: It doesn't actually say anywhere when his birthday was except 'Autumn' so I made it up} and I'm also known as Padfoot, one of the Marauders--"

"Or Snuffles!" Sirius sent me a death glare and Snape snorted with laughter, along with most other people in the room.

"Shut it Prongs, I wasn't going to mention that." Sirius tackled me to the floor, but I ended up sitting on him. Lily stepped forward, sighing heavily.

"Sorry about them, Snuffles is Sirius' pet name, when he's a dog. I think it was James that actually came up with it and it just kind of stuck. Anyway, I'm Lily Evans, I was born on the 30th of January but there's nothing more to say about me." I grinned.

"You're the most beautiful girl in this room, angel." Lily spun round on the spot and slapped me in the face, which took me heavily by surprise. I could see Snape trying not to laugh and sent him a glare. "What was that for Evans?!" I growled, trying to keep my voice pleasant for her.

"For being arrogant," her voice softened slightly. "But this..." She moved towards me and kissed me softly on the lips. It was beautiful and just how I imagined it. Like kissing an angel. Suddenly I felt confused. "...is for saving my life. Thank you...James." I stood there dumbstruck for a few seconds until Harry stepped in.

"Mum?"

Lily's POV

"Mum?" I stood there in shock as the words fell out of Harry's mouth. No. No way did I marry James Potter! I mean, sure he was handsome and brave and sweet and...no, he's arrogant! ...but yet he saved my life when he could have left me. Maybe he isn't that bad after all. I saw slight tears in Severus' eyes and a pang on guilt ripped through me, and it hadn't even happened yet. I knew I would have to go back and face him after this and he'd be oblivious to everything.

"YES!! I GET EVANS!!!" I facepalmed as James punched the air happily and a growl escaped Severus' mouth, but only I heard. Suddenly Harry ran forwards and hugged me tightly. I was his mother. I wrapped my arms around him softly and hugged him back, feeling all different emotions at the same time that it almost completely overwelmed me.

"I love you mum." The words took me by surprise and I felt tears well up in my eyes. I didn't realise that those four words would ever have such an impact on me, as I had never understood whenever my mum had loved it when I said it to her. I made a mental note to tell my mum that I loved her when I got back and I moved away from him. James stood there awkwardly for a few seconds - so like him - then hugged Harry tightly before pulling away and Harry had told him he loved him. Dumbledore cleared his throat and we all turned to him, James moving over to me and slipping an arm around my waist.

"I have figured out a way to send you all back to your original time. Do you wish to go back now or wait a little while? However the latest you can go back is the last day, because doing that means that you will be trapped here forever." We all glanced at eat other and I spoke up for us. We all knew what we wanted.

"Professor, if it is ok can we stay for the feast on the last day, then return to our time. We would like to spend time with everyone here. And I need to speak to Sev...Professor Snape." Dumbledore smiled kindly.

"Of course Miss Evans, and you may call him Severus now, you know him after all." I nodded greatfully at him.

"Snape? Seriously Lils?" James complained and I slapped his arm playfully.

"James, just don't."

"I always wondered why your behavious towards me changed Pott...James, I guess now I know. Lily changed you for the better." James nodded at Severus and I smiled slightly at their new behaviour to each other.

"I've just realised that it's the last day tomorrow..." Hermione spoke up. "That means that you only have today and tomorrow here." She finished sadly.

"I will have a special feast  put together in your honor tomorrow. Do you wish for your true identities to be announced?"

"I suppose there's no harm in that if we're going home tomorrow, I mean it's not like in the past when you can change the future because we're FROM the past." I stared at Sirius, shock covering my entire face.

"That has to be the smartest thing that you've ever said padfoot..." Remus said between laughter and Sirius punched him playfully.

"I suppose we'd better get Wormtail and tell him to hide out in the room of requirement until we leave. We don't want to start un uproar between the other students." I mentioned and the other Marauders stared at me.

"You called him Wormtail? But you always call him Peter." James asked.

"Peter is the man, Wormtail is the dirty rat." I spat. The man would betray us in our future, and I didn't take to betrayal kindly. They all nodded in understanding and after a few more minutes we all slumped out of the office. "I'm just going to talk to Severus, so I'll see you in the common room." They all nodded and James placed a soft kiss on my cheek before scampering off with the others. I made my way down to Severus' office where I had seen him disappear to just seconds before. I went in and closed the door quietly behind me. When I faced the desk I saw that Severus hadn't seen or heard me come in. I gasped quietly when I saw him. He was crying silently with his head in his hands. "Severus...?" His head snapped up and he turned away to wipe his eyes, hoping that he had gotten away with it.

"Yes Miss Evans?" He tried to cover up his emotions but I saw right through him.

"Drop the act Sev, please. I know you're upset over something, please tell me what is bothering you." He looked hesitant but saw the look I was giving him and gave up.

"Lily, I don't want you to hate me when I tell you." I raised an eyebrow and he finally gave up. "Fine. Lily...I love you."