Shattering Timelines

“So, what do you think of Hogwarts?” Alice asked as she drug him up the stairs to the portrait of the Fat Lady. The trip to the common room had turned into an hour long tour of the castle that ended with the girls lost more often than him.

“It’s more magnificent than I ever thought it could be,” Harry said sincerely.

Gwen looked at him curiously. “Really? If you weren’t suspecting this, what were you suspecting?”

Harry got a far off look in his eye. The castle was much different than it was in his time. Although it looked the same as it had before the Final Battle took place here, the atmosphere was completely different. During Harry’s time, the school had been darker, and there had always been a slight undercurrent of fear. Hogwarts seemed so much lighter now as if the war wasn’t affecting the school at all, but Harry knew better. He could see the beginnings of the war starting to show in certain students, but it still wasn’t as bad as it had been in his time. “I don’t know. It wasn’t this.”

 Lily looked at him, slightly concerned before pulling him the last few steps to the common room entrance. She gave him a small smile. “Are you ready to enter the house of the brave?”

Harry gave her a slight smile before pulling his mask on, leaving his face completely blank. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

She nodded before saying the passworded to the Fat Lady, “Leonis animum.”

Loud music came blaring out of the common room as the portrait swung open. Harry took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

A party was in full swing. The common room was packed with all the upper lever Gryffindors. Evidently, Harry and the girls had stayed out long enough that the first years to be sent to bed. Groups of teenagers were scattered throughout the room either dancing or catching up with friends. Somebody must have been brave enough or stupid enough to smuggle in alcohol. Harry’s bet was on the Marauders. Most of the students were drinking Butterbeer, but some of the most daring students were drinking Firewhiskey.

“Evans!” a voice called out from the crowd. Sirius Black pushed his way through the crowd of teenagers. He had lost his robes sometime during the party and his uniform was askew and untidy. “Where’ve you been? You almost missed the party!”

Lily looked at the party, not even trying to mask her disdain. “You do realize that tomorrow’s a school day, right?”

Sirius shrugged carelessly, flipping his hair. “So? Why not have fun now?”

Alice looked at Lily pleadingly. “Come on. Can’t we have a little fun? I mean, we can show Hadrian how to party the Gryffindor way.” Alice winked suggestively. Harry tried to suppress a shudder.

Sirius finally looked over at Harry. Sirius eyed him carefully, silently judging him. “So you’re the new Lord Slytherin, huh? Thought that line had died out.”

Harry tensed a little, but he had expected a reaction like this. “Technically Lord Emrys-Slytherin.”

Sirius’ eyes narrowed. “That’s right. Almost forgot about that. What are you doing in Gryffindor since you have both Emrys and Slytherin blood running through you?”

“It’s where the hat put me; you can’t argue against it,” Harry had to hide to hide a smile at the irony, “Whatever happened to not judging a book by its cover? After all, you are the black sheep of your own family, Mr. Black.”

Sirius’ eyes narrowed even further. “So you didn’t want to be in Gryffindor.”

Harry rolled his eyes. Of course, Sirius would only focus on that. “No, I wanted to be a Hufflepuff,” Harry said sarcastically, ignoring how Sirius’ eyebrows skyrocketed in surprise, “It was just an expression.”

Sirius continued to scowl at him. “Why did you even transfer to Hogwarts, anyway? Get kicked out of your old school? Must have been done something pretty bad for you to be expelled a year before you graduate.”

“I was homeschooled.”

Sirius scoffed before smirking slightly. “What happened? Your parents get sick of you?”

“They died,” Harry said stiffly.

Sirius paused looking a little remorseful before masking it. “What happened?”

Harry stared at Sirius in shock. He hadn’t expected his godfather to be so harsh. He had expected Sirius to be suspicious and standoffish, but he had not been expecting this. Who asks someone how their parents died? “It’s none of your business,” Harry ground out.

Lily glanced worriedly between the two guys before sharing a look with her friends.  Alice quickly bounced in front of Sirius asking about Quidditch tryouts and Gwen gently pulled Harry into a slightly less crowded part of the room.

“Sorry about him. He can be a little… cruel sometimes. It’s not on purpose! Well, it kind of is…” Gwen rambled. Harry quirked an eyebrow at her and gave her a small smile.

Gwen sighed. “He’s just trying to protect his friends. Black doesn’t trust very easily, and you’re new, not to mention a Slytherin.”

Gwen looked at him with wide worried eyes. “That doesn’t mean you’re evil or anything! It’s just Sirius has had bad experiences with Slytherins.”

Harry sighed. “I can understand. I didn’t expect people to trust me, hell, even like me right off the bat, but that gives him no right to be rude.”

 Gwen bit her lip. “Give him a few days. Maybe him and the rest of them will warm up to you? I mean, they’ve never had to deal with anybody besides themselves, so maybe that’s why they’re giving you the cold shoulder.”

“They? Who’s they?”

Gwen laughed quietly. “I forgot you didn’t know them. They’re so popular here, it almost seems like they’re famous. They have a certain charisma to them. I was talking about the seventh year Gryffindor boys. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. They call themselves the Marauders. They’ll be your dorm mates.”

“The Marauders, huh? Also known as thieves, outlaws, and bandits. Should I be worried?”

Gwen shook her head no before nodding. “A little. Try not to get on their bad sides. Their pranks are practically famous here. The teachers can’t stop them. You don’t want to get on their bad side. They can make your life a living hell.”

Harry eyed Gwen curiously. He had always wanted to know what the Marauder’s were truly like. Depending on who he talked to they were either a funny, well liked group or a cruel group of bullies. He really hoped his father was more than a bully. “Can you tell me what they’re like?”

“Well, there’s James Potter. He’s the leader of their group and practically a brother to Sirius in everything but blood,” Gwen paused and cocked her head, “Actually, I think they’re related by blood. I think there is some Black blood in the Potter’s family line or something. I don’t know; I always get the families mixed up.”

“You’re a pureblood?” Harry asked curiously.

Gwen looked at him surprised before laughing. “No. No, I’m just a muggleborn. I did a lot of research when I first found out about the wizarding world.”

Harry nodded quietly. “You know, one of my best friends was a muggleborn. One of the smartest people I knew. She always had a book in her hand, researching something or the other.”

A sad look entered Gwen’s eyes. She must have thought Hermione had died in the war. “Past tense? What happened?”

Harry gave her a small, sad smile. “She didn’t die or anything. We had a disagreement a few months back, and evidently she couldn’t get over it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Gwen said quietly, “I know what that feels like.”

“You have an argument with a friend?”

Gwen looked down. “A long time ago. He was my best friend, but he just couldn’t get over the shock…”

Gwen shook her head before forcing a fake smile on her face. “Anyway, the Marauders. So, Potter is the ringleader. His Dad’s an Auror; could get away with murder if he wanted to. He comes up with most of their pranks, but he can be really sweet sometimes. He claims he’s been in love with Lily since first year, and I almost believe him. You should see some of the ways he’s tried to convince Lily to go out with him. He hides it, but I think he’s a hopeless romantic.”

“Then there’s Black,” Gwen continued, “He’s the black sheep of the Black family. He was supposed to be in Slytherin, but he somehow wound up in Gryffindor. Ever since he’s been trying to make sure nobody mistakes him for a Slytherin. He’s loyal, almost to a fault. Black would do anything for his friends, but anyone else is fair game. He’s extremely protective of his friends, even went against his own brother for them,” Gwen looked at him nervously, “He’s a playboy and an excessive flirt. You might want to be careful with him.”

“I think I’ll be fine, Guinevere,” Harry said confidently.

Gwen shrugged. “You wouldn’t be the first one to say that.”

“What about the other two? You mentioned a Remus and a...Peter, was it?”

Gwen blinked before smiling. “You’re right. The next one is Remus Lupin. He’s the brains of the group. I honestly don’t know how he didn’t end up in Ravenclaw. He’s one of the smartest people in the school,” Gwen grinned, “Also one of the sassiest.”

Harry blinked at her, confused.

Gwen chuckled lightly, Unbelievable right? Usually, the smart ones follow by the rules, but not him. He’s the mastermind of all their pranks. He never gets caught, though. All the teachers think he’s this sweet kid that somehow got mixed up with the wrong crowd, but none of them realize he’s the one that pulls off the most impressive pranks. The only time he does get caught is when the whole group goes down. You know that saying ‘all for one, and one for all’? The group takes it quite literally. They always go down together.”

Gwen paused. “The last Marauder is Peter Pettigrew. He’s… different...”
Harry cocked an eyebrow at her. “Different? What do you mean?”

“He doesn’t fit in with the rest of the group,” Gwen said slowly, “Like everyone has their spot, you know? Potter’s the leader, Black’s playboy, and Lupin is the brains of the whole thing, but Pettigrew doesn’t have a place. It was like he was just thrown into their group.”

Gwen shrugged. “That doesn’t mean he’s a bad person. I mean, he’s a good guy. A little plain. Not the brightest crayon in the box if you know what I mean,” Gwen laughed quietly, “But he’s loyal to the group. He’s willing to do anything for them.”

Harry nodded absent-mindedly. When had Peter changed? He had obviously cared about Harry’s parents, but he had been willing to rat them out to Voldemort not even three years later. Maybe Peter was still good in this time?

“So these are going to be my dorm mates, huh? Sounds like I should be on my guard.”

Gwen’s eyes widened, and she started shaking her head frantically. “No! No, that’s not what I meant at all! I just wanted to warn you...” Gwen stuttered.

Harry smiled kindly at the girl. “I only meant I’m going to make sure they don’t prank the hell out of me. I’ll wait until I actually know them to pass judgment unlike somebody I know,” Harry said looking over his shoulder to where Sirius was dancing haphazardly on one of the couches, clearly intoxicated.

Gwen smiled. “It looks like you’re a lot calmer than the rest of us Gryffindors.”

“I’ve had some practice,” Harry claimed.

A blonde streak suddenly flashed by Harry. “GWWWEEEEEENNNNN!!!” a giggling voice squealed. Marlene tackled Gwen giggling madly. “Gwen, you should totally come join the party!!! It’s so much fun, and you’ve been stuck here in this lonely corner. Unless you’re making the moves on the hot new lord.”

Marlene winked exaggeratedly at Gwen before making a shushing motion. “Shh! Don’t tell him I said that! That would be embarrassing!” She said in a loud whisper.

Gwen rolled her eyes and tried to push Marlene off of her. “How much did you have to drink? We haven’t been gone that long. You can usually hold your alcohol.”

Marlene looked around wildly before leaning in close to Gwen. “Don’t tell anyone I told you, but the Marauders made this new kind of Firewhiskey that is sooo good! It’s super secret stuff, so shh!”

   “So they’ve upgraded from pranks to making alcohol?” Harry asked, stepping closer to the pair of girls so Marlene would notice him.

Marlene jumped and almost fell over giggling. “Hadrian! My old friend, when did you get here?” Marlene turned to face Gwen again, “Did he hear me say he was smokin’ hot?”

Harry blushed slightly and tried to stutter out a response. After a few failed attempts Gwen took pity on him. “Come on, Marlene. I think you’ve had enough. Time for bed,” Gwen said trying to drag her friend to their dorms.

“Nooooo! I wanna stay!” Marlene whined before she collapsed completely, landing in a heap on the floor. She giggled. “Ashes to ashes, we all fall down!” She flung her arms out dramatically and laid on the floor.

Gwen looked down at her exasperated. She grabbed one of her friend’s arms and tried to pull the drunk girl up, but Marlene refused to budge. Gwen looked up at Harry pleadingly. “Do you think you’d be able to carry her?”

  Harry nodded. Although he didn’t look it, Harry was a lot stronger than the everyday teenage boy. The war had built up his strength as well as his knowledge of magic. “How are you going to get her into the dorms? I’ve read that they don’t allow the opposite gender into them.”

Gwen grinned slightly. “Let me worry about that.”

Harry shrugged and carefully picked up Marlene bridal style. She giggled and flung her arms around his neck. “My knight in shining armor!”

Gwen quickly lead Harry through the mass of drunk teenagers to the girls’ dormitory. When they got to the stairs, Gwen grinned mischievously at Harry before placing her hand on one of the stones on the wall and mumbling a few words. She motioned at him to follow her, not seeing one of the people in the crowd of drunk teenagers watching them. “Come on. You can enter now.”

Harry glanced at the stairway nervously. He had seen Ron try to run up these stairs, and it had not been pretty. It took months for him to live down the embarrassment or for him to walk anywhere close to the girls dorms. Harry took a deep breath and stepped on the first step. When screams didn’t pierce the air Harry relaxed and followed Gwen to the last dorm room. Gwen held open the door for him as he walked and looked around. There was nothing special about the room. It looked exactly the boys with the scarlet beds in a circle. Gwen pointed to one of the beds, and Harry carefully set Marlene on it.

“How did you get me up here? I thought the walls screamed or something if a guy came up here?”

Gwen grinned lightly. “It does, but there was a counter-enchantment also built in. It was mainly built in for the girls’ safety. Like if all the teachers were guys, they would have a way to get up here.”

Harry looked at her confused. “So just anyone can come up here?”

Gwen tilted her head. “Yes and no. Any guy can come up here, but the only way they can is with a girl’s consent. That’s what I was doing with the stone,” Gwen explain, “Plus the spell automatically checks your intentions. So, if you wanted to… you know… with one of the girls, the walls would start screaming.”  

  Harry nodded slowly.Why didn’t Hermione ever use the counter-spell in their time? It would have made things a lot easier at times.

Gwen started to take off Marlene’s shoes. “You don’t have to stay. I’m just going to put her to bed and get ready for bed myself.”

“Okay,” Harry agreed, “Good luck with the other girls when they come in.”

Gwen shuddered before mumbling. “When did I become the mom friend?”

Harry grinned. “When you began to worry about your friends’ stupidity.”

Gwen moaned and fell onto one of the beds. “That was a stupid decision.”

Harry merely chuckled and went back to the party in order to let her sleep. The party was still in full swing. Harry looked at all the empty bottles of Firewhiskey and winced. It looked as if a lot of people were going to have a hell of a hangover tomorrow. Harry glanced around the room for Lily and Alice. He chuckled as he saw Alice dancing with a… Hufflepuff? How’d he get in here? They were both clearly drunk, and their dancing mainly consisted of them trying not to fall over as they held each other up. Across the room by the bookshelves, Lily was arguing with James. James was swaying slightly, but clearly not as drunk as the other teenagers in the common room. Harry had to hold back a laugh as James dramatically fell to his knees and begged Lily to dance with him. Harry did laugh when Lily simply rolled her eyes and pushed him causing him to fall backward and lay sprawled out on the floor. Several people who hadn’t noticed the commotion tripped over James as they danced causing a large dog pile in the middle of the floor.

Lily kicked his foot before storming to over to the staircase to the girls’ dorms. She stopped when she noticed Harry standing in the shadows. “Oh, Hadrian! I didn’t realize you were still down here.”

Harry grinned and pointed to where Sirius was trying to pull James out of the dog pile. James grinned mischievously and yanked Sirius on the dog pile as well causing Sirius to squawk loudly. “I didn’t want to miss the show.”

 Lily glanced back and blushed slightly. “Did you see him talking to me?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say it was talking. More like begging his ‘one and only true love’ to dance so he could have so semblance of happiness in his life before he died,” Harry said as he smirked.

Lily dropped her head. “I’m gonna kill him one of these days,” she mumbled, “Nobody would care. Hell, people would probably help me hide the body.”

Harry chuckled. “Why would you do that? You have a boy over there who would do anything for you. I’m sure that would come in handy sometimes.”

Lily glared at him. “A truly Slytherin answer,” she sighed, “Sometimes he’s more trouble than he’s worth.”

She glanced longingly up the stairs, and Harry decided to take pity on her. He nodded to the stairs. “Go to bed. Gwen’s already up there with Marlene.”

Lily smiled at him relieved as she mumbled her goodbyes and practically bolted up the steps.

Harry shook his head and headed up to his own dorm room. He looked around the room. It almost felt as if he was intruding on something that wasn’t his. The room was well lived in and clearly the boys’ sanctuary. Harry could clearly tell which bed belonged to which Marauder. James’ bed was on the left side of the door. Somehow, it already looked as if he had slept in it; the bed was completely unmade. Although James’ bed was completely unmade, his trunk was in order. It was tucked neatly beside his bed, nothing out of place. Harry reached out with his magic trying to sense if it had any kind of locking spell on it. Harry smirked as he felt the shock to his magic. The charms were powerful and would keep out most powerful wizards, but wouldn’t be able to keep him out. He had been Mad-eye’s favorite student for a reason. Maybe Harry had gotten his paranoia from his father.

The bed beside his father’s was obviously Sirius’. Clothes were strung all over the bed, most of them were different band t-shirts. Harry glanced at his trunk. He could practically feel the magic radiating from it even without using his magic. Harry raised an eyebrow at it. The trunk was practically saturated in black magic which was odd considering that Sirius had been adamant on only using light magic when Harry had known him. Kind of hypocritical of him to be using black magic now...unless he didn’t know the trunk was radiating black magic. Harry looked at it closely. It was old, probably a family heirloom. When Kreacher had been retrieving the Black family heirlooms, Harry had come to realize that all most everything the family had was usually saturated in dark or black magic. Maybe Sirius couldn’t tell it was dark because he grew up around it.

Harry stood and walked over to the next bed. It was obviously his. It was the only one out of the five beds that didn’t have any kind of personal effects. Harry grinned. It was as if Hogwarts knew what he needed. He had been worried his bed would be closest to the door, but here it was the bed at the opposite end of the room. Harry had become particularly paranoid because of the war, but this helped him not attack anybody who suddenly entered the room. Harry pulled out his trunk from his pocket and resized it before pushing it under the bed. Harry reached forward and touched his bed, casting every protection spell he knew. The Death Eaters and Order combined wouldn’t be able to get into it after he was finished.

Harry stepped back and went on to the next bed. It was obviously Remus’. While the rest of his dorm mates had a messy streak, Remus was neat. Everything had its’ place. His bed was perfectly made. His school books were stacked neatly on the nightstand, but there was one book that was sitting precariously on the edge. Harry picked it up and laughed when he saw the title. The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Harry shook his head and placed the book back where he got it from before walking over to the next bed.

Peter’s area was a mess. He had dumped his school books and supplies in a pile on his bed. Various candy wrappers were scattered throughout the mess on his bed. He had left his trunk wide open with no protection charms in place at all. It looked like Peter had been looking for something because clothes were scattered around the trunk.

Harry paused. This was the perfect opportunity to tell whether or not Peter had already traded sides. Harry carefully knelt down beside the open trunk, being careful not to disturb anything.

Kali began to stir for the first that night. “Any suggestions, Kali?”

Kali sniffed at the air before squawking. She flew from his shoulder and landed in the trunk. Slowly and carefully, the duo began to search the trunk making sure to remember exactly where they found everything. After they physically found nothing, Harry searched the trunk with his magic. Something felt… off. It didn’t feel like there was magic hiding anything. In fact, it felt like the trunk hadn’t been touched by magic at all. “Surely, Pettigrew didn’t do it the muggle way,” Harry mumbled.

Harry carefully began to knock on the sides of the trunk. As he suspected, the bottom sounded different. Harry grinned.“You sneaky bastard.”

He ran his fingers across the bottom until they caught a small niche in the wood. Harry pulled out the fake bottom and looked at the secret compartment. It was half filled with various potions and the other half was filled with wrapped packages. Harry held up one of the bottles. It was a murky green color that reminded Harry of the swamps the twin had created during the Reign of Umbridge. He was really wishing he had paid more attention in potion’s class. “Do you know what this is, Kali?”   

Suddenly, Kali’s head snapped towards the door, and she growled. Harry hurriedly began to put everything where he founded, just barely putting everything away and taking a few steps back before the door opened. Loud shouts entered the room as a group of boys fell through the door. The guys were laughing until Peter nudged James and pointed to the stranger in the room. Then everything became silent.

James' eyes narrowed. “Who are you, and what are you doing in our room?”

Harry tensed and rubbed his hand through his hair. “I’m Hadrian. I’ll be your new dorm mate?” Harry said uneasily.

  Their faces darkened. Sirius stepped forward. “Why are you in our dorm?”

Harry smiled uneasily. “Well, I’m in my seventh year. And this is the only seventh year Gryffindor dorm, so here I am.”

Remus eyed Harry carefully, glancing between Harry and Peter’s bed. “Why were you looking at our stuff?”

Sirius and James snapped their heads to look at Harry. Peter started fidgeting nervously, glancing at his trunk. Harry had to suppress a wince. He knew he hadn’t gotten far enough away from Remus’ and Peter’s bed. Now it looked really suspicious especially with him being Lord Slytherin.

“I wasn’t looking through your stuff. I was just getting ready for bed.”

Remus looked at him carefully. “Where are your pajamas?”

Harry tried to suppress a growl of frustration. Remus was too smart for his own good sometimes. “I just came in! I was tired of the party.”

Remus backed off, seeming to sense Harry was not in the mood to be tested with. Remus nodded and headed to his own bed, Peter following his lead. Sirius stepped forward in order to start the interrogation again, but James put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. Sirius glared at Harry before heading to his own bed.

Harry sighed and began to get ready for bed. This was just great. Exactly how he wanted to meet the marauders for the first time. Note the sarcasm. Harry sighed as drew the curtains around his bed and curled up in a ball. Soft murmurings filled the room. Kali quietly crawled and nudged his nose. Harry slowly began to pet her. “Don’t worry, Kali. Maybe things will better in the morning,” Harry lied to Kali. Things were probably going to get worse before they got better.