Fate

Chapter 24 - Nothing Like This Ever Happened

After over twenty years of friendship, Remus was sure that he would never be able to understand the inner workings of Sirius Black's mind. No matter how much he tried.

Sirius had looked dead on his feet when they had reached the guest quarters earlier that night and as he, Harry and Sirius had collapsed into their individual beds, Remus had fallen asleep instantly. Obviously Sirius hadn't.

It was times like this when Remus regretted not keeping the Marauder's Map when he found out that Harry had it. Hogwarts was like home to him, but a really large home that was almost impossible to search by yourself. But, not wanting to disturb Harry, Remus had gone out looking for Sirius on his own. Therefore he was walking through Hogwart's dark and cold halls at four o'clock in the morning, wondering if Sirius was ever going to grow up and figure out that nighttime was time to sleep.

He held his wand slightly in front of him, lighting up the dark corridors and chasing back that shadows a bit. Turning a corner, he saw a faint light coming out of a pair of doors a ways away. Squinting, he saw that it was the hospital wing and frowned, wondering what Madam Pomfrey could be doing up this early. Walking closer, his light made out the form up a figure leaning against the wall, huddled over and not moving.

Quieting his light, as the light from the hospital wing was enough, Remus leaned down hesitantly, trying to establish the identity of the person.

"Sirius?"

Sirius jerked his head up and Remus almost jumped back in shock as he saw his friend's tearstained face. Shock turned into confusion as Remus saw that his friend was shaking slightly and trying not to make eye contact with him.

"Sirius?" Remus repeated, unsure of what to say. Ever since coming out of Azkaban and more recently from coming out of the veil, Sirius' up and down moods had slightly scared Remus as he was trying to remember his spunky and upbeat friend from school who had pranked Dumbledore himself and lost just as many points for Gryffindor as he had earned. Sirius was changed, and Remus wasn't sure if he liked it.

The door from the hospital wing flew open, throwing light into the hall and causing Remus to squint slightly at the form of Madam Pomfrey who looked out at the two of them.

"What's going on?" Remus asked quickly, remembering that Pomfrey didn't know their real identities, only that they were guests of the headmaster.

"I need one of you to go fetch the headmaster, that's what!" she said snappishly. Remus grimaced at her, feeling like a student in trouble again. "And if your friend there isn't capable, then I suggest you do it before I loose two of my patients in here!"

Frowning, Remus glanced down at Sirius who didn't seem to be responding to anything. Panic gripped him for a moment, and he was at once overwhelmed with what he should do.

"Please, just get him into one of the beds," Remus pleaded, his voice cracking slightly as he suddenly wondered who her patients in the hospital were. He stood up and started walking towards Dumbledore's office.

Not waiting to hear her reply, as soon as he turned the corner her broke into a run and reached the statue of the phoenix in only a few minutes, speaking the password quickly and not bothering to knock as he burst through the door.

"Professor Dumbledore! Please, you have to come to the hospital wing-"

He cut himself off as Dumbledore stood quickly, coming around his desk with a worried face. Remus' eyes, however, strayed over to the young man sitting on a chair in front of Dumbledore's desk.

"Severus Snape?" he said disbelief. That didn't make sense...Snape wasn't supposed to switch sides until September.

Snape merely glared coldly at him and though Remus knew that he didn't have any clue who he was, Snape already hated him.

"What happened?"

Dumbledore's voice jerked him out of his daze about Snape, and Remus turned back to the headmaster. "I'm not sure...Sirius was missing and I found him in some kind of shock outside of the hospital wing and them Pomfrey told me to come and get you because there were some very serious patients in the hospital wing..." Remus rattled on, not quite caring or not quite realizing that he had said Sirius' name.

Dumbledore and Snape shared a glance that Remus didn't quite understand and at once they both started forward. Not really in the mood to ask about Snape, Remus simply lead them towards the hospital wing, his mind jumble of thoughts that he wasn't able to process at all. Between Snape, Sirius and the bodies in the hospital wing, Remus was quite sure he had no idea what was going on, and he wasn't sure if he was ready to find out.

Sooner than he would have liked, the reached the double doors and Dumbledore threw them open quickly, moving right over to the nearest bed, Snape following behind him. Remus, however, went over to the lone bed on the opposite side of the room where he saw Sirius sitting. Coming up on the side of the bed, Remus froze upon seeing Sirius. He was sitting on the side of the bed, his face in his hands and his shoulder's shaking slightly, as if he was still in shock. Remus was reaching out to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Dumbledore's voice broke in first.

"Mr. Lupin?"

Remus whirled around, realizing that Dumbledore was trying not to reveal his true identity to the people in the room, and, still slightly in shock, hurried over to where everyone was standing.

Remus' heart skipped another beat as he saw 'Sirius' lying on the bed in front of them, looking even worse than the other Sirius. He was lying still on the bed, deathly white and seemed to not even be breathing. He turned shakily towards Dumbledore who was looking at him gravely.

"It seems Mr. Black was hit by the killing curse at the exact moment that he was being transferred by a portkey."

"What?" Remus breathed out, unable to believe what he was hearing. "But that would mean he's-"

"No, he's not dead," Dumbledore interrupted, though he didn't seem quite sure of himself. "But he is very near. Rarely does this happen, but when the killing curse is used in conjunction with certain kind of magic, it throws its power off and merely seems to stun the person severely and do them grievous physical damage."

"He wasn't breathing at first when that man brought him in," Pomfrey explained, pointing to Sirius who didn't seem to realize there was a conversation going on. "I was afraid that he was dead, but he only had a collapsed lung which I was able to fix." She looked sympathetically down at the unconscious 'Sirius'. "Both his legs were broken and one of his arms. He had a great slash in the back of his head, which is where I expect the curse hit. His heart also seemed to have stopped for, what I could figure, at least a minute or so, which, needless to say is not very normal."

Remus looked horrified as pieces clicked into place. He whirled around, running over to Sirius and without a word, reached on the back of his neck and up his hairline, eyes going wide as he felt a long scar running up the back of his friend's head.

"Ow! Merlin, Remus!" Sirius jerked up, startling Remus completely as he still stared, horrified at his friend. Sirius stood up, turning to face him, his face still pale with tear streaks, but his eyes narrowed and his breathing labored.

"Sirius...that scar-"

"Yeah...I know..." Sirius snapped back, running a hand through his hair and closing his eyes tightly as if fighting off a headache.

Remus gulped. "What happened?"

"How should I know?" Sirius practically cried out. "I found the three of them in the hall and they were all knocked out. I put them in the hospital wing and then realized that I wasn't breathing!" He glared at Remus. "How would you have reacted?"

"Sirius," Dumbledore broke in, ignoring the looks of confusion on Madam Pomfrey's and Snape's faces, "please try to stay calm-"

"Calm!" This time Sirius did shout. "We screwed up! Why doesn't someone just admit it!" Remus winced at the harshness in his friend's voice. "Nothing like this ever happen...ed..."

Sirius trailed off and his face dropped, his eyes glossing over as he froze. Remus reached out a hand, meaning to go up and help him, but didn't get very far when Sirius suddenly reached up, holding his head and shutting his eyes tightly, once again looking like he was shutting out a headache.

Remus moved toward his friend but stopped short and looked helplessly up at Dumbledore who was looking curiously at Sirius.

"What's going on?" Remus finally got out. "What's happening to him?"

Dumbledore seemed to think it over for a moment, looking between the younger Sirius and the older Sirius before finally looking back at Remus.

"My best theory? He is receiving the memories from this latest event that has just happened."

Remus frowned. "Then why wouldn't I-"

He never finished the question, but he got his answer immediately as a tremendous amount of pain suddenly shot through his head. So great was the pain that he wanted to cry out, but couldn't seem to. He leaned forward slightly, bringing his hand to his head and his eyes squeezed tight as suddenly hundreds of millions of images started to flash through his mind, most of them accompanied with pain and fear as well as worry and a few with love and comfort.

As soon as it had come, it seemed everything stopped and his breath was coming in short gasps as he blinked the stars out of his eyes, trying to take control of his body again and sort through everything he had just seen and felt.

A reassuring hand on his shoulder comforted him a bit. He looked up and saw Sirius standing in front of him, pain clearly evident in his eyes as he gripped his arm tightly, steadying him as much as he was himself.

Both of the old marauders shared a glance before turning towards the others in the room.

----

The castle was quieter than Harry had expected. He had never really been in it during the summer, but it was rather disconcerting the way that there was no one around. Of course, when someone would walk past, he would deftly duck into the shadows, not wanting to answer questions from the staff about who he was. Dumbledore had assured them that the teachers all knew that the time travelers were Dumbledore's guests and were not to be questioned, but Harry knew that curiosity most often would override rules.

At least in his experience.

After dodging around a quite younger McGonagall, Harry managed to make it to the kitchens and hurriedly tickled the pear, his stomach growling as he thought ofhow long it had been since he had eaten. More than twelve hours....another interesting predicament. Harry had woken up this morning to an empty room and a clock that read 11:00 am. Not that he really minded, he probably needed the sleep anyway. He just hoped that Remus and Sirius had gotten enough sleep as well. He wondered where they were.

A house elf rushed up as he entered and he was at once grateful that Dobby wasn't at Hogwarts yet.

"Can we be getting anything for you, sir?" the squeaky voice asked.

"Do you have just some toast I can take with me? I have to go find my friends," Harry explained as another elf rushed up with a napkin and 3 slices of toast with butter and jelly.

He smiled and thanked them, stepping quickly out as he munched on the toast, trying to figure out where he should go first. The most obvious place was Dumbledore's office. He could go try to find his parents quarters, but he had no idea where they were except for the floor.

Making up his mind, Harry headed towards the headmaster's office, wiping off his hands and throwing the napkin in the trash as all the toast was now gone.

His fast walk quickly got him down the right hall and right as he turned the corner to go to the office entrance, he stopped short, seeing someone walk out of the entrance. Ducking behind a suit of armor until the person passed, Harry squinted, trying to figure out who it was. He scowled as he saw the greasy haired potions professor sneer at the empty hallway and begin walking towards him. Harry moved farther behind the statue, praying that Snape wouldn't see him. He'd probably assume that he was James and Harry wasn't sure he would be able to control his temper if he heard that man bad mouth his father any more.

Wait...

Harry frowned. Something was wrong about Snape. He wasn't as young as Harry had figured he would be. In fact, he looked exactly like he had in Harry's time.

Great Merlin! Did he ever wash his hair?

The thought snapped into Harry's head so quickly that he was surprised he hadn't thought of it before.

Taking a chance, Harry deftly stepped out from behind the armor, carefully gauging Snape's reaction at seeing him.

"Professor Snape?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Snape stopped short and graced Harry with his customary sneer that he saved for Marauders and their relatives. But then his face immediately dropped and his gaze started darting all around him as he looked at his surroundings. Not quite sure what he was doing, Harry just stood still, trying to look unconcerned and at the same time wearing a look that dared Snape to make one crack about him or his father.

When Snape's eyes finally rested back on him, he scowled again.

"Potter. No doubt just come from a teary eyed reunion with your pathetic father, did you?"

Harry's temper flared, but he bit it back and matched Snape's glare with one of his own.

"No doubt you find it funny to try and screw with the universe for your own amusement, but incase you two haven't noticed it by now, something has gone wrong."

Harry's eyebrows went up a bit, but he tried not to show his surprise.

"And how would you know that, Professor?" Harry bit back. "And to top that off, how did you even get back here? I don't recall you wanting anything to do with any person in this time right now."

"For your information, Potter," his upper lip curled and to Harry's surprise, he began walking again, so Harry followed, "I was sent here by Albus because he obviously knew that that pair of dunderheads you traveled with wouldn't be able to do and adequate job."

Not able to take it any more, Harry whipped out his wand, getting in front of Snape and making him stop as he pointed it right at him.

Snape showed no sign of fear, but he did stop walking and he did increase his annoyed look about ten times over.

"Going to curse me, Potter? How so like your father. He would curse anything on sight. At least you wait for a reason whereas he-"

A bright light shot out and clipped Snape on the shoulder, sending him toppling to the ground before he could say another word. Harry's eyes went wide and he whirled around to see James Potter standing there, glaring hatefully at the fallen potion's professor, his wand still in his hand.

Harry glared at his father. "Did you have to do that?"

James walked up beside Harry and though his face softened slightly when he looked at his son, he still had a purely disgusted expression. "Don't tell me you weren't going to."

"I was, and that's my point. I think it's the first time that I've actually had the guts and the means to do it and you took away my chance." Harry cracked a small smile and James mimicked him, rolling his eyes.

They both looked over as Snape stirred, starting to stand up. Harry and James both frowned and narrowed their eyes as Snape stood up, holding his shoulder. He stopped dead at seeing both of them and huffed once.

"Bloody Merlin, I must be in hell," he muttered. "Or is it just a privilege of few to be able to see both Harry and James Potter together."

"I'd keep your mouth shut, Snivillus," James hissed and Harry was taken aback by the hatred in his voice. "Unless you want to find yourself on the ground again."

"Still the same as ever, aren't you Potter? Of course I've had to go through the past five years of teaching your wretched son, so make no doubt that I've had my fill of Potter's and I need no more of your smart remarks."

James ignored him and turned to Harry. "He was your teacher?"

Harry nodded reluctantly.

James huffed. "What was Dumbledore thinking? He's a Death Eater!" James hissed out, pointing to Snape. "Everyone knows that."

Harry opened his mouth, confused as to why James didn't know about Snape being a spy, but Snape cut him off.

"I think it would be prudent to save this conversation for a later time."

Both Potter's glared at him, but Harry did agree that he had a point.

"So what are we supposed to do then?" Harry asked him. "Stand here and stare?"

"I suggest we find the headmaster," Snape said stiffly.

James looked back at Harry, not bothering to acknowledge Snape anymore, probably. "What's he doing here? He didn't come back with you guys."

Harry bit his bottom lip. "I'm not exactly sure. He said something about it going wrong...What are you doing here anyway?"

James' expression softened. "I came looking for you actually. Both of the Sirius' and Remus' are in the hospital wing."

"WHAT!?" Harry exploded. "And I get told this NOW??"

James grimaced. "Ah, neither of them wanted us to wake you, your Remus and Sirius I mean. They're not that bad, just a little shaky from the memories?"

"Memories?"

James sighed. "Look, Dumbledore can explain this better than I can." He turned back to Snape finally who had seemed content to just glare at the two of them as if his gaze would be able to make them disappear. "I suppose you ought to come as well. Though your double is in there as well."

"My what?" Snape snapped.

"Your younger self," Harry explained as they started walking.

"Yeah, it'll be like one big cheery reunion," James said cheekily. "I'm sure your Remus and Sirius are just dying to see you again, Snape."

Harry bit back a laugh as he saw Snape stop short at Remus and Sirius' names, but then trudge forward, muttering obscenities under his breath as he followed the two Potters towards the hospital wing.