Back to the Past

~Unexpected company, writings from the long dead, and an impossible task~

It was the feeling of a Portkey jerking not only the occupants, but also the room itself somewhere. The light faded slowly. The ground, hard and bare, shook under their feet. Or, rather, under other parts of their anatomy. They had all fallen to the ground. All seven of them.

Seven? You ask, counting with your fingers to make sure. Yes, seven.

No one noticed the extra body at first. They were all too worried (and rather relieved) about being alive.

Lily went up to James and kissed him so thankfully that his eyes widened like dinner plates.

Dara went up to a grinning Sirius and slapped him so hard that he swore.

"Damn it! What was that for?" he asked, rubbing his cheek.

"Oh, hmm...Let me see," she stared, faking intense concentration. Then she stuck her face in his and yelled, "For almost getting us killed, you blockhead! And don't think you can get off for what you're GOING to do!"

Sirius was truly perplexed, "What? I haven't-"

"Oh, but you will! There's always SOMETHING you have to do wrong, Sirius Black. Let's try to get back to Hogwarts in our original pieces, okay? Or is that too hard for you?"

Sirius was totally unperturbed, however. He started to laugh. Dara stared at him in disbelief.

Then, the newcomer made his mistake. He spoke.

"For once, I am inclined to agree with a Gryffindor," said a voice dripping with disdain. "You can't do anything right, can you, Black? Now you've got us in a bloody mess!"

This got everyone's attentions. And it got everyone's tempers started.

"No way," Lily said flatly.

"I'm having a nightmare, right?" Dara asked pleadingly.

"I could even bear being in the middle of nowhere," Sirius commented, "but NOT with that slimy git for company."

Severus Snape realized his mistake and began to back away. They advanced on him.

"What are you doing here?" James' voice was so cold that you would shiver by just hearing it.  Snape did.

"You were wandering the halls, so I did my duty to make sure that you were apprehended before you could pull any of your- childish jokes."

Sirius surged forward, but was held back by Dara.

"No way," she told Sirius. "He's mine. I'll show him 'childish jokes'! Let's see him sneer like that without a face!"

Remus caught a hold of her and Snape looked worried for the first time. He tried to be calm.

"Did you think I'd want to be stuck with the Marauders?" he spat out the word mockingly. "Or that I was following you to be a part of your little gang? I don't want to be stuck here anymore than you do. And especially not with you of all people."

"The general feeling is reciprocated," Lily said blandly. "The sooner we get out of this the better."

Peter was shaking, "What and wh-where is this?"

Everyone surveyed the scene for a few short moments. There was no sign of life. It was, as Sirius had remarked, the middle of nowhere. No trees, no roads. Only a few pathetic weeds peeked through the soil. The dirt covered the whole landscape as far as they could see. Everything was flat and lifeless.

"Wow," Remus said, almost reverently, "Where are we?"

"And when are we?" James added. "And what happened? That was unlike any Time Turner that I've ever seen!"

There was a whispering sound of paper from behind him. Lily had her head in a book and was softly turning the pages.

"It's a Time Turner but- but this is the only one like it in the world-and in time! Look!"

Everyone, except Snape, who told them in no uncertain terms he wouldn't go near them to save his life, crowded around the book.

"I picked it up just before we were- taken here," she told them. "It was on the floor of that room." She frowned, "Guys, it's written by three of the founders. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor."

Sirius was standing on James' foot, which was rapidly losing all feeling, and he was also being elbowed in the ribs.

"Read it out loud, Lily," he suggested. The crowd dispersed somewhat as they found seats on the ground. "All right, here goes."

" 'Dear friend(s), since you are reading this, we assume that you have fallen victim to Salazar's scheme. It was his plan to rid the world of Gryffindors. Having failed to kill Godric, he tried to think of another way. Unfortunately, he is very intelligent. He devised a way to put a secret room in Hogwarts. It would open up only for someone with Gryffindor blood. Once it was opened, there was no escape. It could be entered, but not exited.

" 'We became aware of his plan, however, and made this book to aid you in the case that he would succeed in bringing you here. Yes, it is that time now. He is alive and he intends to kill you. Preferably by his own hand, but he isn't too picky.

" 'With that said, however, you can still get back. You must make it to Hogwarts. ALL of you (if there is more than one) must remain alive. If any of you are killed, the future is in danger. Once you arrive at the castle, we will help you as well as we can. You must find the same room that you were transported here by and it will take you back.

" 'Please hurry! The future depends on you. All of you. We do not know where he had you sent to, or we would have made preparations to help you from there.

" 'Good luck to you, our friend(s)! May you arrive safely! We await you as you read this.

" 'Sincerely, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor, and Helga Hufflepuff.'"

There was quiet as they pondered the fullness of their task. Then James spoke what they were all thinking.

"We're so screwed."

There was silence for a moment after James spoke.  Everyone seemed resigned to their strange fate.  They were lost in the middle of nowhere hundreds and hundreds of years before they were even supposed to be born.  Surprisingly, Peter was the one to speak up.

"Well?" he asked, looking around at them. "Well?!"

No one spoke.

"Are you just going to sit there and WAIT for Slytherin to come and kill us?  Are you just going to give up and let him get you?  Let a Slytherin beat you?"  They stirred restlessly and Snape huffed.

"Well," James started, "this is different." He began to walk off across the infinite plain of sand, "There´s nothing here!  Even if we tried, we´d probably never get out of here!  It goes on forever!"

"You know," Remus said slowly, "there would be a chance if we knew where we were." He too got up and began to walk around, examining the sand.

Dara cleared her throat, "It seems to me that Peter is right, however.  It goes somewhat against our principles to just let this go.  I think that we should at least make an effort.  I mean, sitting here waiting for Slytherin to put a knife in our backs is really not an attractive thought.  But that´s just me..."

Snape was staring at the ground thoughtfully.

"Don´t move any further," he told them suddenly as he tentatively scraped the sand with one foot.

"What?" James asked, startled enough so that he complied with Snape´s order.

"Don´t move anywhere," Snape scowled, engrossed in his studies of the surroundings.

"Why-"

"Just don´t!"

James shook his head, and found a way to relieve his frustration, "I can´t believe we had to get stuck here with HIM," he grumbled.

"Yeah," Remus declared in a tone that could have been sarcastic or could have been quite serious.  He did it so well that no one knew what he really meant. "And we can´t even leave him in the past, either.  A great opportunity wasted!"

"We could," Sirius said hopefully. "Maybe no one would even notice.  They´d probably even throw us a party when we got back if-"

Lily silenced him with a glare as she was getting quite fed up with this whole thing.  Why couldn´t she just have a normal life and a normal boyfriend?  However, she thought affectionately, I wouldn´t trade James for a million galleons.  Probably.

"Like it or not, he´s coming," she said practically.  "Maybe he won´t be so bad.  We ought to give him a chance..." she looked at their expressions and fell silent.  Okay, so that suggestion had the survival chance of a snowball in hell...

"Right, Lily," her best friend said a bit sardonically. "Whatever you say."

 They stewed in silence until it was broken by a startled yelp from somewhere in their vicinity. 

"What-"

"Who?"

"It´s Peter!" Sirius exclaimed. "He´s gone!"