The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

Timelines

Timelines

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?"