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The warm wind was blowing, stirring up James’s hair, making it stand on end as he stood beside Remus in the starlight on the balcony high over Hogwarts. “Merlin’s beard, Rey. Tell me everything.”

“What’s the last thing you know hasn’t changed?” Remus asked.

James thought for a moment. “Sirius had hurt himself - though we didn’t know that part yet then. He yelled at us, you and me and Pete, because I’d been talking to Regulus by the docks and he -- he broke up with you, and then he passed out and we had to bring him to see Pomfrey. Then Maryrose came and got me, and Regulus sent me and her to save Lucy Minchum…” he squinted into the stars high above, then, “Yeah, that’s it. Because Maryrose and I were at Number 12 Grimmauld Place to save Lucy Minchum.”

Remus nodded, “Alright.” Remus sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall. James sat facing him, legs crossed, eager to hear what it was he’d caused. Remus bit his lip for a minute, thinking, remembering… “Well, I stayed with Sirius when you and Peter left and you lot told me later that Maryrose had come to get you to go off to save the Minchum girl. Peter stayed in the hall waiting to see how Sirius was… I knew he didn’t mean the things he said on the stairs, about not loving --” Remus paused and looked at his hands, “-- about not loving me. I knew those things then anyway.” He drew a deep breath. “And I gave him back my father’s ring and we were - we were sitting and talking, I was trying to talk him into going to see Minnie about what he’d done and how he was feeling - which he flat out refused to do. Refused to talk about it much at all, really. Just kept saying he… had a dementor in his chest…

“Well, as we were having that talk, Regulus had a panic attack, worrying about you and Maryrose and he came upstairs to the hospital wing, not long after you’d left and Pomfrey put him in the bed across from Sirius and Sirius got really upset, yelled at him a good bit for having talked to you behind his back and that sort. Sirius said somethings he shouldn’t have done - you know Sirius. He told Regulus that he wished he had a different brother, that he was the worst brother in the world, that Regulus was a terrible person and that sort…

“Regulus started crying. Like he just fell apart, James. It was terrible, really. The poor kid was just sobbing. And well, you could see it bothered Sirius ‘cos Sirius got this really strange look on his face when Regulus was crying… and he just… he got out of bed and he went over and he petted his kid brother’s head and he just… he started telling him this story about Snuffles, and Regulus’s tears subsided and Sirius hugged him, told him everything would be alright because you were there to protect Maryrose. He said he knew you’d do anything it took to bring her home safe.”

James nodded, “Obviously. Including going back in time!”

Remus paused. “Was she… one of the ones whose lives you saved?”

“Yes,” James replied. “She died, Rey. In my timeline, Maryrose never came back from Number 12 Grimmauld Place. She sacrificed herself to give me time to save Lucy Minchum, and the Dark Lord killed her for it. Killed her and put her in this horrible cave… with dead people in the water. Inferi. Loads and loads of inferi.”

Remus’s eyes were full of horror. “That’s… awful.”

“Yeah. We - we went and tried to save her - me and Regulus and Sirius and Lily.”

“Lily?”

“Yeah.” James paused. “Go on with your story, though. I didn’t meant to interrupt. Go on.”

“Alright. Well, so then you came back and you had the Minchum girl, and --”

“Did McGonagall find out about my animagus?”

Remus blinked in surprise, “Blimey! No; why would she have?”

“Well, I had to run from Number 12, and I ran as a stag and I ended up in a department store and kept getting caught in displays in the store and there were death eaters chasing me and then there was McGonagall at the door and she caught me up and poof we were outside the gates here - me and Minnie and Lucy. I had purses and things all stuck up in my antlers, Rey.”

Remus laughed, “No, that didn’t happen and if it had, I’d be really sad I didn’t get to see it!”

James said, “So how did we get back to Hogwarts, then?”

“Well, because Sirius was being so kind to him, Regulus told Sirius about where you and Maryrose had gone and why and we told Gideon Prewett and he and Dumbledore went to get you lot form the square at Grimmauld Place. So they brought you and Lucy here, and Pomfrey treated Lucy and gave you some potion to rest. Then Dumbledore came in with Maryrose, who couldn’t remember much of what happened. So nobody really knew much of what happened…”

I saved her,” James said. “Me from the future.”

“Right.” Remus paused. “Dumbledore must’ve put a memory charm on her or something, maybe. I dunno. But anyway… She knew where the Minister was - apparently Rudolphus had said it or something and she told you, and the moment the two of you were out of the hospital wing you went off on another adventure - you and Sirius - and you rescued the Minister.”

“What?” James looked perplexed, “Me and Sirius did?”

Remus nodded, “You lot snuck out through the Shrieking Shack to Hogmeade and took the floo to London and kidnapped the Minister for Magic back out of the basement at the Malfoy’s. He rewarded you both for your efforts. A thousand galleons each, and big medals and your photos were in the Daily Prophet. It was incredible. Your mum and dad were really proud, James. Your dad sent you howlers everyday for a week just to shout about how fabulous you are - Saving the Minister for Magic! His son! A hero to the wizarding world!” Remus smiled.

James flushed and looked down with an embarrassed chuckle, “That sounds like him.”

Remus laughed. “Well, you were quite proud of it. Plastered copies of the paper all over. Tried to get Lily Evans to go out with you. Kept pointing out what a hero you are. But she was already seeing Jasper by then. You made a big production one night in the common room that Jasper Odair is just the Hufflepuff James Potter and made a terrible scene of it. Lily started arguing with you, saying that Jasper was --” he paused and cringed.

“What?”

“....she said he was ten times the quidditch player - nay, man - than you are, and you got all worked up. Oh James, you were nearly as dramatic as Sirius over it. You decided you had to win the next quidditch match against Hufflepuff, it was just so bloody important to you. You’d think the prize was the hand of Lily Evans the way you acted. You were outside constantly practicing…”

“And?” James hoped maybe he was a bit more manly in this timeline than he’d been in his own, that maybe he’d managed to hold onto his own broomstick and not had the humiliation of being caught by Jasper Odair…

“...and you lost,” Remus said gently, as though saying it gently made it any less horrible to hear!

James deflated. “Well that’s bloody horrible.”

“Yeah. You were quite upset about it. So, um… the next day, Lily made a big production of going over to the Hufflepuff table to congratulate Jasper… and you were going mad about it, so you decided to go over to the Hufflepuff table, too, just to annoy her - so you went over to talk to Maryrose and Lily got annoyed with you being over there and she made some comment about how you were only there because of her and Jasper and you said you weren’t, you were there to talk to Maryrose… and she said you were a liar, and you said you weren’t - that you loved Maryrose and for Lily to shut up on it and leave you alone and… When you came back from Hufflepuff you sort of unceremoniously informed us you had a new girlfriend - Maryrose.” Remus pursed his lips.

James closed his eyes, “I asked her out? As revenge on Evans?”

“Yeah, apparently,” Remus replied. “Which I thought was really stupid of you… and then you and Sirius had a big row about it.”

“Me and Sirius did? Why?” James looked confused, “Why did Sirius care?”

Remus said, “Well Maryrose was Regulus’s girlfriend at the time. But -- well, she - she sort of broke up with him for you. She never stopped loving you, see, from last summer, when you and her were together… Well, no, that’s a bit of a mistake, really, on my part. Bad way to word it. See, when you asked her out at Hufflepuff table, Regulus had just come into the Great Hall and he overheard it and she’d sort of deflected the question, rather than a straight out no, I have a boyfriend, and he got really jealous and he broke up with her because of it. Seems that he and Sirius have a bit alike - the dramatic flair and hasty reactions without hearing a full story.” Remus said this last bit with a bit of contempt.

James frowned. “I can’t believe I did that.”

“You’ve done it before,” Remus shrugged.

“Have I?” James looked shocked. “When?”

“Fourth year, at Christmas. You asked Lily to go to the ball and she said no - said it really nasty, too, and you turned around and asked Annalee instead… and she’d already said yes to Peter and he ended up not getting to go with her because you asked her and she never even bothered to tell him. She just forgot about him.”

James’s face flushed.

“So honestly nobody thought anything of it. It was just another Jamesy move.” Remus frowned.

So did James.

“So… well, then it was Valentine’s Day.” He said this heavily, the words Valentine’s Day a weight that he bore. He frowned.

“It was just before the full moon,” James remembered.

Remus nodded.

“Did you give Bradley his werewolf lessons?”

Remus nodded.

“And Sirius was being an arse about it,” James added.

Remus nodded again. “We all sort of had issues on Valentine’s Day. But you had Maryrose, at least, and you went to the tea with her to show Evans up.”

“What about the prank?”

Remus sighed. “Oh that prank… you have to admit it was brilliant.”

“Are we talking about the same prank? I helped pull it in my timeline… everyone in the Great Hall, in love with Dumbledore, including Jasper Odair…”

Remus said, “Well, in our timeline, it included you! Then Slughorn had no cure for several days - so for like three straight days you were on about Dumbledore’s sexy beard. Maryrose thought it quite funny to morph a beard on her chin just to get you going on it.”

James laughed, then - “Wait. If I was in love with Dumbledore, did we still catch Fenrir Greyback?”

“Catch Fenrir Greyback?” Remus sounded confused.

“Yeah! Greyback was stalking about the forest, looking for you or Ned Veigler or something and we were all out in the Shrieking Shack and Sirius smelled him in the yard and we all went outside and Sirius fought him and Lily Evans stunned him and Peter tied him up and ---” James stopped as Remus’s eyes widened in shock. “So Fenrir Greyback’s not been caught?”

“No,” Remus said.

James paused. “But we had a party that night to - to celebrate it and --” James’s face burned red. “Wait. If I was in love with Dumbledore, then --” An echo of Joy to the World swam through his mind and the feeling of waking up in the library the next morning - a memory of Lily Evans framed by sunlight and actually seeming to enjoy his company - nearly kissing him… the rumors… “Lily Evans and I -- we were -- we snogged. Well, she says we snogged. I don’t remember it. I was drunk. But there were rumors. Big scandal.”

Remus shook his head. “You and Lily are… not friends.”

James felt his stomach plummet. “We… aren’t?”

“No.” Remus looked at him sadly as James’s eyes clouded up and he looked away.

Suddenly he looked back, “But surely she was impressed with my stag patronus, wasn’t she? In patronus class?” James’s eyes burned hopeful.

Remus looked confused, “You haven’t cast yours yet.”

“I haven’t?”

Remus shook his head. Then he said, “At least not a corporeal one yet. You’ve done the mist a couple times. Lily hasn’t actually yet, either.” He paused. “Mine was a wolf.”

“Yeah, a werewolf.”

“No,” Remus replied. “Just a wolf. A plain, regular wolf.”

James said, “What about Sirius?”

His was a werewolf.” Remus looked down at his shoes. “That’s… that’s when it started.”

“What started?”

Remus closed his eyes a moment, then he said, “The werewolf rumors.”

James shivered.

Remus ran his hands over his knees, eyes sopping up, “And that’s when everything began falling apart.”