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Part 9 of and several bad jokes later
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harry is in a 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱, did someone say time travel, i solemnly swear i am up to no good, Hpficssssssss, Harry Potter
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2021-06-01
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2021-07-25
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i saw you for the first time (but i knew u already)

Summary:

The footsteps become louder, and Sirius presses himself to the wall, Wormtail twitching on his shoulder, Invisibility Cloak covering them head to toe.

It's not Filch. Or Mcgonagall.

It's James.

Except, of course, it's not.

He's much shorter than James, his face is younger, somehow - and his eyes are a worried green, his face set in a frown as he looks around, biting his lip. He's wearing Gryffindor Robes, but Sirius is sure he's certainly never seen him before.

Notes:

**please read this before beginning!!** okay, okay. so yes, there were like three chapters earlier, in case anyone was wondering. Sorry about that. it's just that idk what was i exactly thinking when i wrote them?? because i just re-read those parts and found them so weird that i *had* to take them down. I'll be continuing the story very soon, though, dw about that.

In case you read chapter 1 earlier, THIS IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT. I've added Harry’s backstory and I'm going to be changing the scenes that I wrote after this chapter.

TL;DR : to understand the fic, you'll have to read this chapter again. It's been re-written. Atleast parts of it.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: you're my floating home

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

_____________




[“Bill and Fleur’s wedding, remember?” 
Harry looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful. 

“Yeah, we shouldn’t miss that,” he said finally. 

His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still  one last golden day of peace   left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.]

- The White Tomb, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 




_____________





1st July 1997

Dumbledore’s man through and through.

The day after Dumbledore's funeral is a...strange one. Harry can't concentrate on anything anyone says, his mind keeps wandering to Malfoy's face on the Tower, to Snape and the book that Harry had been using, to Dumbledore falling, falling, falling - 

We’re with you whatever happens.

Harry has things to do, Horcruxes to find. If he can't stop thinking about all this, about the past, he'll never be able to do that. But. It's difficult. Harry clutches the Horcrux, as he nods to Ron saying something about Snape, not fully listening. The thought of Snape is intolerable at the moment, it's all...it feels like his fault. 

It  is  his fault.

Like Sirius.

It's funny still, Harry thinks, that even after everything, after Snape’s betrayal, after Dumbledore's death, it's  Sirius  that Harry thinks of. Sirius who makes Harry’s eyes sting. He's not cried  properly  for him, he thinks, he's not moved on yet. He'll never move on. It's like he...still expects Sirius's ghost to come back or. Or something. Like Sirius isn't really gone.

He wants to see Sirius.

The idea comes to him in a heartbeat.

He takes out his Invisibility Cloak, and telling Ron that he would be back in sometime, he quickly walks to the seventh corridor, and walks across the large wall,  the mirror...the mirror...I need the mirror of erised...I want to look into the Mirror of Erised...I WANT TO SEE SIRIUS -

The door appears at that, slowly, sinking into view, and Harry goes inside, gritting his teeth when he sees the Vanishing Cabinet, right here, in the open. For any Death Eater to use, at any time -

He takes a deep breath, and walks further in.

He looks for the Mirror, still thinking, desperately, that he  wants to see Sirius, wants to see his godfather, wants the mirror of erised -

Nothing happens. Harry finds nothing. Nil. Nada. There's no goddamn mirror here. Harry had really thought he would find it.

Disappointed, he makes his way out, glancing to the left as he goes, before halting.

Holy shit.  Harry blinks, hard, stares at the window again. It's  night.  Already. But Harry gone inside the room at barely four. It's dark, outside, though, now.

He groans, already worried about answering Hermione’s questions as he walks. Just when he's near the Gryffindor Tower, he  sheds off the Invisibility Cloak, stuffing it into his pocket as he crosses that last bend.

Which is when, he sees the Marauders' Map.

Lying. On the floor. Just like that, three feet from the Portrait. In the open.

"What the hell," he mutters, frowning, as he goes to pick it up. Isn't Hermione supposed to have it? She isn't the type to drop things just like that. That also, important ones. Like the bloody  Marauders' Map.

Maybe it's not the Map, he thinks, doubtfully.

"I solemnly swear I'm upto no good," he whispers, and well. It  is  the Map. It opens up, and Harry's about to pocket it and go to the common room, when his eyes narrow in on his own name.

Harry Potter,  it says.

Right next to... Sirius Black.

What the fuck?

The air in front of Harry suddenly ripples, and Harry blinks, eyes wide as they latch onto the hair and the eyes and the face and how is this possible- it's not possible - but  oh my god he's here -

"Padfoot!" Harry yells, a wide, involuntary grin splitting his face as he almost barrels into Sirius.




____________





Gryffindor Tower, 1976

"Kitchen Run, Jamie?" Sirius asks, sighing as James beams at Evans, again. Evans is staring at him like he's asked her for her first-born.

"Take Pete, Padfoot," James replies, his eyes locked on Evans pathetically. "Cloak's with him. Map's with - er - "

"I have it," Sirius says, frowning as he looks for Peter, who's sitting on the couch with a giggling fifth year girl. 

Sirius wonders irritably why Peter always gets the girls he likes.

"Oy, Wormtail," he calls, rolling his eyes as Peter turns to glare at him. "Kitchens. Now."

Sirius watches absently as Peter makes his excuses, and comes towards Sirius, small grin on his face. "What's got your wand in a knot  now?"   he asks, glancing sideways at Sirius, as they walk out of the portrait, draping the cloak over them. "It was  your  idea to have the party, anyway."

"My mind changed," Sirius says, huffing and Peter shoots him a knowing smirk, taking the Marauders' Map from Sirius's hands.

"Oh," he says, lips twitching as Sirius scowls at him. "Your mind changed?"

"That's what I just said, isn’t it - " Sirius begins, irritably, when suddenly, there's a shuffling noise from around the bend of the corridor. Sirius freezes, and if he was Padfoot, his ears would probably be perked up right now. 

"Transform," Sirius says, shortly, and Peter looks at him, alarmed. "Transform right now. We can’t move fast if both of us use the cloak. Pete,  hurry!"  he adds, as the shuffling turns to distinct footsteps which are rapidly getting closer.

Peter shrinks. 

The footsteps become clicks, and Sirius presses himself to the wall, Wormtail twitching on his shoulder, Invisibility Cloak covering them head to toe. 

It's not Filch. Or Mcgonagall.

It's  James.

Except, of course, it's  not.

He's much shorter than James, his face is  younger,  somehow - and his eyes are a worried green, his face set in a frown as he looks around, biting his lip. He's wearing Gryffindor Robes, but Sirius is sure he's certainly  never  seen him before. His eyes zero in to somewhere near Sirius's feet.

"What the hell," he mutters, and walks right upto them. Sirius curses mentally. Wormtail turns his little head to Sirius with wide, guilty eyes, and Sirius  knows  Peter's messed something up, again.

The boy bends down and Sirius holds his breath as he picks something up -

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

Sirius glares silently at Peter, the idiot who  dropped  the goddamned Map. Peter shakes his head slightly, as if to say that the Map is atleast not open.

Of course, that hardly matters, as Sirius will know in the next two seconds -

"I solemnly swear that I am upto no good,"  the boy who really, really shouldn't know this, whispers and it's all that Sirius can do to not make a sound. 

Except if he knows how to work it, then that also means that -

He sees him mouth the words  ' Sirius Black'  with a disbelieving stare. Sirius winces, exchanges a look with Peter-the-Rat, and shrugs off the Cloak.

The boy gasps a little, stumbling back and then, looks at Sirius like he's a ghost, looking pale and shocked and  hurt.

There's a pause, and then -

" Padfoot!"  he yells, and crushes Sirius into a tight and extraordinarily confusing embrace. 

There are a lot of things on Sirius's mind, as he stands there, frozen in shock - Wormtail has jumped off his shoulder, inching away to look as if he's just come from the corridor, the boy smells like something that Sirius recognizes, there's a scar on the boy's forehead, he knows how to open the Marauders' Map, he  somehow  knows that Sirius's nickname is Padfoot, but most of all -

The single word spoken by the boy - the  'Padfoot!'  that he's spoken without hesitation, sends a ripple of black across Sirius's forearm. His Soulmate - because that is, apparently who the boy is,  Sirius's Soulmate -  remains oblivious to Sirius's mind racing intensely, cataloging a million questions and everything about this boy.

Finally,  finally -  he pulls away, probably because Sirius hasn't hugged him back, probably because he was just done with it and says, in a quiet voice like he's admitting a secret, "I always kept hope, you know. Even when everyone thought you were dead."

Sirius doesn’t know what to say. Finally, he settles on, "Dead?" he croaks out, and waits for him to react, waits for the boy to feel the ripple that Soulmarks make -

"But you came back!" the boy says, grinning, not a single sign of recognition on his face.

And  Oh. 

He hadn't ever thought he could be the Soulmate of someone who wasn't his Soulmate  back.  It's shock he feels, but along with an odd resignation, because  of course.  This was just his luck, there was something apparently unlovable about him, something that -

"Sirius?" the boy asks, looking confused as he stares at Sirius, his eyes running up and down. It makes Sirius feel uncharacteristically conscious. "I-why do you look like- how do you- are those Hogwarts  robes you're wearing- "

He breaks off.

"Oh my god," he says, mouth hanging open. "Oh my god! Oh- fucking Merlin- "

Sirius watches him as he tugs at his hair, raising a shaky finger at Sirius and back towards the hallway, Sirius's hand still wrapped around his wrist to hide the now-black word.  Padfoot.  He'd wondered so many times in the past, of how his Soulmate would already know his nickname to be  Padfoot,  of all things, but he'd never thought it was going to be this complicated.

"Fuckfuckfuck - "

Sirius really doesn't understand anything at the moment. "I - er - I  really  don’t know who you are," Sirius says, wondering if he's supposed to sound apologetic.

"Fuck, of course, you don't,  not yet - !"

"Sirius?" 

Both Sirius and the crazy-Soulmate-boy turn towards Peter, who's standing on the side and looking awkward. The boy blinks once, twice, his wand coming up seemingly unconsciously, before he takes a deep breath and asks, "What is the date, today?"

Sirius looks at the boy, who looks entirely solemn about his enquiry, and then, looks at Peter.

"Er - yesterday was Friday," Peter says, slowly. "So, today was - oh, it's the ninth. Ninth October."

There's a long pause. Peter stares cross-eyed at the boy's wand.

"...1975?" the boy asks, and if Sirius wasn't still wondering about his Soulmark, he would be utterly confused.

"1976," Peter corrects, incredulous. 

"You're sixteen, then," the boy mutters, looking so completely  lost  that Sirius feels a twinge of sympathy. "This is complete bollocks ."

Peter shoots him another bewildered glance.



_____________




Peter's  very  confused.

Sirius would say that's nothing new, but the point stands that Sirius also seems as confused as Peter feels, so something needs to be done.

The boy who looks like James keeps cursing. He's halfway to hyperventilating, and he's still not lowered his wand from Peter's throat. On a strange level, Peter sort of  likes  that the boy thinks of him as a threat. Nobody else does.

"How is this even fucking possible," the boy mutters, furious. "And  Dumbledore , oh god  - "

Sirius is clutching his forearm, and gaping -

Oh. Wait.  The boy had said 'Padfoot' hadn't he? Peter knows that Sirius's arm spells that.  Interesting  .

"I didn't mean to... fuck ," the boy mumbles, and then sort of collapses against the wall, leaning on it for support and looking generally sick and tired of everything.

"Are you... alright?" Sirius asks, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant. It's also an uncharacteristically stupid question. The boy is obviously not alright. 

"This is probably a dream," the boy whispers, looking at Sirius with a weird kind of awe. "Yeah. That's it. I'm dreaming that  Sirius is alive  and that he's hanging out with fucking Wormtail."

Well. Now, that's just offensive. Peter's a right pleasure to be around. He tries not to bristle, because the boy's wand is still pointed towards him.

"What's your name?" Peter asks, politely, trying to shrug off the look of pure loathing that the boy gives him.

"Harry," the boy says, as if startled into answering. He glares at Peter, right after saying his name.

Harry.

"How'd you know about us?" Sirius suddenly demands, his wand shooting sparks. Harry-whoever  seems unfazed, like he's sure Sirius wouldn't hurt him. "How do you know about the Map and about our nicknames and - "

"I just - " Harry starts, looking alarmed, when there's a  thud  sound from the other of the corridor and loud footsteps -

A group appears round the bend, green robes, jeering expressions. Peter stiffens, immediately, and so does Sirius. Harry looks stunned.

"Well, well," Mulciber announces, with a wide grin, too loudly for an empty corridor in the middle of the goddamn night, still in his Quidditch robes from the evening match that they lost.  "Look  at what we have here."

Snape and Avery step out from the bend right after him, and finally,  finally , Harry lowers his wand, looking at the Slytherins with an unreadable expression. 

"A pleasant evening to you too, Mulciber," Sirius says, sneering. "I must say, I did miss you quite a lot in the last four hours that we've been apart. If I had my Beater's Bat, I'd even give you another hit ."

Peter glances at Harry, who's still staring at the three Slytherins like he can't believe they exist, his gaze racing from one to the next.

Mulciber snarls and advances, but Avery grabs hold of his sleeve and pulls him back. "So, Black's being a little bitch again. What's new?"

"Yeah, you'd know a lot about bitches, wouldn't you?" Sirius says, twirling his wand, and Peter can tell that Sirius is quite glad that the Slytherins have come, if only for the distraction. "What with  your  mother."

Peter can safely say that Sirius's Mother is also a heinous bitch. Sirius can also say that, but he'd say 'Walburga' instead of 'mother.'

"You filthy little - " Avery screams, and then, spells are flying, first of course, from Snape's wand, right to Sirius.

Sirius is ready, but he doesn't need to be, because  Harry  is there first, going straight for Snape. 

It's surprising, how much he looks like James in that moment, except worse - he looks like he's  out for blood. 

Like he's going to seriously kill Snape.

Sirius looks shocked, but he takes Mulciber, and Peter gets Avery, as usual.



______________




Sirius likes his soulmate already.

With the kind of passion that the boy seems to hate Snivellus with, who wouldn't?

" Expelliarmus!"   Sirius hears, and he knows that Snape's been disarmed. 

Mulciber is bleeding from his cheek.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Sirius yells, sharply twisting his wand, and Mulciber goes down. He runs to help Peter, who seems like he's holding his own, what with Avery's face covered in boils.

The boy  -  Harry, his name is Harry  - is still with Snape, glaring at him with so much force, that Sirius is sort of concerned. Harry digs his wand into Snape's throat, and he's saying something but Sirius is too far to hear. 

(Sirius would pop open a champagne and dance on Snape’s grave if he died, but this doesn't seem like the moment.)

"Stupefy!" Peter says, triumphantly, and Avery falls down, his jinxed boils bursting nastily on the floor. 

"Nice one, Pete," Sirius says, walking to where Snivellus is standing with Harry.  Harry, his one-sided Soulmate who wants to kill Snape. Harry.

"I don't know what you're playing at, Potter, but - " Snape is saying as Sirius strides over.  Makes sense,  he thinks. Harry  does  look creepily like James. 

"I'm not  playing  at anything, Snape, so Merlin help me - " Harry begins, angrily, his wand leaving behind a red burn mark. 

Sirius silently feels glee. 

"Hey," Sirius says, putting a hesitant hand on Harry’s shoulder, who flinches a little, but his expression doesn't change. "We need to go. Filch will be here, soon, what with the noise we're making."

Sirius turns his wand to Snape, who would be looking confused if not for the rage spelled out on his face.  "Stupefy,"  Sirius says, almost pleasantly, and Snape looks angry even as he falls to the ground.

"Yeah," Harry nods weakly, exhaling and swallowing, face white. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. I just couldn't, I was just, I got a little - "

"We're going to the Kitchens," Sirius says, more gentle than he's probably ever been with anyone. It's doesn't even require a conscious effort on his part. He just feels like he ought to protect this boy. "Come with us. Eat a little, and then we can figure this out."

We.  Sirius just said  we.  He doesn't know why.

"Yeah," Harry nods, and slumps against Sirius, so completely  trusting,  that it blows Sirius's mind a little. Like they're friends.  Like they're family.




______________

Notes:

//you might be wondering why i keep starting new fics when i certainly haven't finished a single one

here's the answer : i'm a moron//

tell me in the comments if you liked this! im trying to give the story more structure, tbh :)

Chapter 2: twist turn twirl

Notes:

it's turned crack-ish

ANYWAY it's not a very productive chapter, just sirius and peter getting to know things...

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

______________




Kitchens, 1976

The three of them walk to the Kitchens in silence. Sirius's head is buzzing, looping in a constant rhythm of his soulmate, his soulmate,  his soulmate is here, this is his SOULMATE.

"This is my second chance," Harry says, suddenly,  as apropos to absolutely nothing,  and defiantly, like he's expecting Sirius to argue. 

Sirius needs to know what he's even talking about to do that.

"This was not an accident."

Sirius hums. It definitely felt accidental, but what does Sirius know? He eyes the cracks on the floor as they walk.

"This was meant to happen," Harry continues, like he's convincing himself and not Sirius. "I'm supposed to be here."

He's crazy,  a voice in Sirius's head whispers. Peter twitches oddly, his expression dubious.

"If I go to Dumbledore," Harry says, and his voice grows hard. "He'll interfere. He's not interfering. Not this time. Not again."

Sirius raises his eyebrows. 

"He promised, you know," Harry’s voice is distant, and Sirius's crazy-people-radar is buzzing like mad. "He said that he wouldn't leave Hogwarts unprotected that night when we went to the cave, that he knows what he's doing. But he didn't- he just- he keeps breaking promises and making more and then breaking them all over, and like an idiot, I keep listening and I just can't, anymore. I  can't."

Sirius's eyes are wide. He resists shooting Harry an alarmed look. The boy already looks panicked.

Harry blinks suddenly, and looks at Sirius, and then says sheepishly, rubbing his neck, "Sorry, I keep getting caught up in all... this.  And I just look at you and I feel like telling you everything that's happened in the last year because you're the only one I could ever really talk to and I - "

Peter clears his throat awkwardly, as if to remind Harry that he's still here. 

They've reached the Kitchens, and Sirius reaches out to tickle the pear on the Painting, not able to really process Harry’s words, as he rambles on -

The door of the Kitchens bursts open in front of them, hitting Harry unceremoniously on the head, and making Sirius drop his wand. He flails, grabbing it mid-air, as Harry hisses in pain, and clutches at his head. Sirius looks up, finally, and comes face to face with -

"Hello,  brother,"  Regulus says, with a smirk identical to Sirius's, a smirk that can be interpreted as anything. It's a special talent of theirs, unreadable expressions that offend you for no particular reason. 

Harry stares, mouth dropping open. Sirius can see Peter inching to his wand. Smart man.

Sirius recovers quickly.

"Reggie,"  Sirius says with a sharp smile, and watches for the familiar look of hurt cross over Regulus's face, before it makes space for the even more familiar hatred. "Fancy running into you here."

Regulus sweeps a perfunctory glance at Peter and Harry, clearly thinking he's James, before frowning, a slight furrow in his brow. He doesn't say anything about it, though, instead looks back to Sirius. 

"I didn't know you were out tonight," Regulus says, raising a single eyebrow. "Or I would have checked the gryffindor corridors first."

Sirius understands in a blink.

"You were looking for Snivellus," Sirius guesses. Regulus's lip curls but his expression remains unchanged. "And Avery. And Mulciber."

"Is there a point to this?" Regulus asks, seemingly bored of the conversation. "Where's your pet blood traitor by the way? Ditched him for another idiot, have you?"

It's a way to get information about Harry, Sirius realises. Regulus knows its not James. 

Sirius doesn't take the bait. 

"Why do you hang around with them?" Sirius asks, instead, suddenly furious. He can’t control his anger when it comes to Regulus, he feels like shaking him till he gets it, till he stops doing whatever he's been doing to please Walburga, till he stops being such an insufferable idiot. "You're not like  them,  Regulus, you're not a - "

"Don’t  tell me what I am or not," Regulus says, his tone icy cold, grey eyes flashing angrily. "You've lost that right."

Sirius grits his teeth. Harry’s hand is suddenly on Sirius's shoulder, like he's grounding him, somehow making him feel a little at ease.

"Where are they? I know you know so don't deny it," Regulus asks, tone detached again, his eyes on Harry’s hand. "Severus? And Mulciber?"

"Severus,"  Sirius mutters mockingly, in a high-pitched imitation, before glaring at Regulus once more, flipping him the middle finger, and pushing past him into the Kitchens without replying.

He feels, rather than sees, Harry looking curiously at Regulus, before he makes his way into the Kitchens after Sirius.

"Master Regulus's brother!" the House-Elves squeak, sounding delighted.  Typical,  Sirius thinks, realizing once more how Regulus is nothing like Mulciber. Or Merlin forbid, Snape. 

Regulus is like... Regulus.

There's quite literally no one that Sirius knows who's personality is so fundamentally contradictory, so cold and so soft, so cruel and so strangely kind, all at once. It's baffling. 

"Call me Sirius," he mutters to the House-Elves, who oblige with a  "A nything for Master Regulus's brother!"  and gets a table. Harry squeezes his shoulder as he comes from the back, dragging along a chair with him.

He passes Sirius a smile as he sits down across him, and Sirius suddenly feels  too  warm. 

He grips his forearm, hides the Soulmark.



______________





"So?" Sirius asks, finally, after they've all had juice, and a toast or two. "Explain."

Harry chokes on his bread. 

"Yeah," he nods, coughing. Peter raises his hand like he's going to thump his back but wisely seems to decide against it. "I-I- just don't know what to say. I'm in a position to mess up a... lot  of things. Big things."

Sirius, for some odd reason, instantly believes him.

"Start with something simpler," he suggests. "How'd you know about the Map?"

"That's pretty big," Harry replies, sounding pained. "God. Fuck. I'm in  way  over my head right now."

"Same here," Peter mutters, scowling into his cup of coffee. "Okay, then. What's with you and Snape? And how're you wearing gryffindor robes when you're not in the goddamn house?"

Harry stares at him for a moment, blinks a couple of times.

"Or school, frankly?" Sirius adds. "We would know you, you look just like a mate of ours."

"I...I am in the house," Harry says, quietly, after a pause. "I got slightly displaced. Somehow. Really didn't mean to do  this."

"Displaced?" Sirius asks.

"I'm probably gonna fuck up history when I say this," Harry looks like he's bracing himself. "But. I got displaced. Through."

Peter blinks blearily at him.

"Time," Harry says, shoulders slumping. "I got displaced through time."

Fucking Merlin,  Sirius thinks. 

"You're joking," Peter says, squinting at him. "You've got to be joking. That's impossible."

"I've been known to do that," Harry grimaces. "I'm not joking, though. Wish I was. But I really don't have any other explanation."

"You-you- " Sirius feels sort of tongue-tied. Because if he's displaced through  time  and he looks like James and he knows their names and about the Map,  then that can only mean -

"Take your time," Harry pats his shoulder. "I'm freaking out inside, too, don't worry."

"You look like James," Sirius manages, after a pause.

The way Harry flushes is telling. And alarming.

"There might be a reason for that," Harry says, awkwardly.

There's silence, for a second.

"He's fucking joking," Peter repeats, shaking his head. Harry levels a flat glare at him.

"Are you saying..." Sirius doesn't want to continue it. "Are you trying to say that..."

The Kitchen door opens with a slam, and he startles violently, craning his neck to see -

Remus. And James.

Perfect. Simply  perfect.

"Oh my god," Harry whispers, eyes wide, as Remus spots them and waves, with a grin that's too wide to be completely sober. "Tha-that's- "

"Padfoot," Remus calls. "Wormy! You won't  believe  what happened." 

"Neither will you," Peter mutters. Harry snorts, before apparently realising he's laughing at something Peter said and stopping.

"What's wrong with James?" Sirius eyes him with concern. He looks blank, almost hanging off Remus's shoulder, mouth slightly open. "What the hell did he drink?"

"I  made all the drinks so, shut it. There was practically nothing in them," Peter says, though he looks doubtful himself. 

"Oh, he didn't drink much," Remus shakes his head, plopping James down on a chair next to Peter. Harry’s still completely frozen, staring at James and Remus. "He's just in shock."

"Shock?" Sirius blinks.

"You'd be shocked, too," Remus says, laughing, and then, "Evans said yes."

There's a long,  long  pause. 

"To one date," James says, dreamily.  Harry flinches at his voice, making a choked noise in his throat.  

"You're all mental," Peter says, sounding horrified, hands on his head. "All of you are just messing about. Or I'm hallucinating."

"W-why would she- ?" Sirius sounds strangled. "Why would  Lily Evans  say- ?"

Harry puts his head down.

"Don’t know," Remus shrugs, "just that James apparently does look fit in his quidditch robes. Also- " he breaks off, probably seeing Harry for the first time. "Who are  you?"

"I am regretting so much about my life right now," Harry replies.

"That's a rather long name," James says, dryly. 

"What can I say," Harry sighs, "my parents were idiots."

Sirius refuses to interpret that, for the sake of his own sanity.

"Why're you here, anyway?" he asks Remus, desperate to change that topic. Luckily, it works. "In the Kitchens, I mean."

"To eat," Remus replies, flatly. "Plus the common room's a mess right now. And Alice wants me to clear up all  your  shit while she snogs Frank- "

"Alice?" Harry interrupts, his tone odd. 

"Er, yeah," Sirius nods. "Alice Fawley. She's in our year, gryffindor prefect. With Remus."

"Oh," Harry nods, looking sort of panicky. "Okay. Frank. Yeah. Okay."

"Are you alright?" James asks, looking more collected than he had been a while back, and definitely happier than Sirius had seen him this past year. Evans is probably not going to be good for his ego. "You know, now that I think about it, you look a lot like- "

"Do I?" Harry interrupts, with a few quick nods. "Oh, yeah, I might."

"Anyway," James says, shooting him a confused look, before he grins. "Told you she'd come around. And she did, didn't she? Said maybe I deserve a chance."

"No, really, who  are  you?" Remus insists, looking at Harry. Peter groans. "What's with the gryffindor robes?"

"Hogsmeade, next weekend," James rambles on. Harry looks overwhelmed. "That's what she said, she said  hogsmeade,  Potter,  sunday, don't be fucking late.  It's happening. It's really happening. We're soulmates, you know," he adds, probably for Harry’s benefit, since there's no way the rest of them don't know. James has only said it twice every hour since First Year. "Soulmate. She's my soulmate."

"I take back what I said earlier," Harry says, "I do need to go to Dumbledore."

"One whole day with Evans," James sighs.

"And who are you again?" Remus's eyes are narrow. 

"If I tell you who I am," Harry gives James a gloomy look, "he'll probably die."

Sirius absolutely doesn't think about  that.




______________

Notes:

next chapter: dumbledore's office + lily evans ...

new take there : lily evans isn't a prefect. she isn't perfect and she also isn't a bitch. lily evans is a normal dumb-smart teenager, probably a bit of an arsehole... she's not canonically a prefect uk.

wrote this in like half an hour because i suddenly felt like it and couldn't stop ... plus who knew organic chemistry sucked right

Notes:

talk to me on tumblr 💛

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