Fate

Chapter 38 - Erased All Trace

Being oblivious, Harry decided, was often a blessing more than a curse.

The next morning, during breakfast in the Great Hall, Harry wasn't the only one who found that he had lost his appetite. Sirius and Remus seemed too bent on whispering furiously to one another and glancing occasionally at Harry, to worry about eating. Harry himself was having a hard time tearing his eyes away from his parents who sat a few seats down, little Harry in Lily's lap as she fed him carefully, James watching and laughing and smiling.

It wasn't long before Harry realized he had a sort of wistful smile on his own face and he carefully whipped it clean and turned away, shoving a spoonful of porridge in his mouth.

"Harry?"

He turned slightly to see Sirius leaning over towards him.

"Yeah?"

"We're going to try and sneak out of here by ten, when everyone comes here for the Order meeting."

Harry nodded mutely, turning back to his porridge, but not before Sirius reached out, laying a hand on his shoulder.

He glanced back up at his Godfather, his eyes questioning why Sirius was looking at him with so much pity.

Sirius opened his mouth to speak, but Harry beat him to it.

"It's okay, Sirius," Harry assured him, smiling slightly. "I'll be alright."

The animagus still didn't look convinced. "This isn't how I wanted our story to end..." he said mournfully.

Harry's melancholy grin came back. "No, but this is how it's going to end." He turned to glanced at his parents once again and then looked back at Sirius. "They were great people, weren't they?"

Sirius smiled broadly, blinking back a tear and nodded. "The very best."

A larger smile lit up Harry's face and he reached over, giving Sirius an awkward one-armed hug.

"It was great to have known them." Harry pulled back out of the hug and looked right into Sirius' eyes. "But I still have the greatest person with me."

----

Remus watched out of the corner of his eye as once again the familiar scene played out beside him: Sirius turned to comfort Harry and Harry ended up comforting Sirius.

He smiled at the thought.

"Remus? A word, if you will?"

Turning in surprise, Remus managed a smile at Dumbledore as the older man waited for him to follow. Giving one last look to Harry and Sirius, Remus stood up, grabbing an apple, as he still hadn't eaten a thing, and followed Dumbledore out of the magnificent hall, walking quietly in step with the aging headmaster.

"I've made all the arrangements for you to get into the Department of Mysteries without any problems." Dumbledore began.

"We can't begin to thank you enough for all your help, Albus," Remus said quickly, being sure to get those words in. "Even if sometimes it still feels like this trip was all for naught...I know, for me at least, it did bring some peace to my soul."

Dumbledore stopped, laying a hand on Remus' shoulder and locking eyes with him. "And I hope you will always keep that peace, my boy, even through the good times and the bad, for there will be plenty of both."

Remus nodded his thanks with a smile. "It's easier to remember the good times, now."

Reaching into one of his pockets, the headmaster brought out a small box and held it out to Remus.

"These are just a few things I've put together, with the other's help of course, for you to take back with you." His blue eyes twinkled again. "No doubt you'll find some amusing and reminiscent items in there."

Remus took the box carefully, but frowned as a thought hit him.

"You told the others? About us leaving-"

"No, no my dear boy. They have no idea. I simply asked them for a few things that might 'jog your memory' so to speak, as they still don't know that you both have your memories recovered in full."

Remus relaxed, handling the small box with the utmost care and sliding it into his own pocket. "Thank you, sir."

"Now, I believe it is time for the three of you to be on your way," Dumbledore said, leading them back into the great Hall where Remus saw Harry talking with lily and James and Sirius talking with 'Sirius' and 'Remus', the large clock above them reading a quarter to ten.

"What about Severus?" Remus remembered, realizing that he hadn't seen the potion's master in quite some time.

Dumbledore smiled gently. "He'll be coming along. Your spell is only powerful enough for three and Severus has his own methods of traveling through time. Make no doubt you'll meet up with him."

----

Stopping again for the last time, Severus glanced once more around his old office, his eyes traveling across the cluttered desk, along the numerous bookshelves and resting finally on the bubbling potion that sat in the corner of the room, the only thing that truly looked out of place.

He walked carefully over to the cauldron, a wave of his wand silencing the flame underneath it and another wave transferring it into a flask that was standing next to it on the small worktable.

He glanced down at the contents, seeing their familiar purplish tint and by the time he finally managed to pick it up and deposit it in his side bag, the purple smoke had cleared from the room.

The last thing he did before stepping out of the door was wave his wand again, cleaning the cauldron and putting it back on the shelf.

The dungeon halls were slightly brighter than usual, being as classes were beginning in a week and the house elves were busy at work cleaning the deserted area from the summer break. He noticed that the doors that had been broken by the Death Eaters were mended without hint of breakage and the long dark slashes on the walls were scrubbed away.

Finally he climbed the last staircase, depositing him onto the main floor within sight of the Entrance Hall, the giant doors open allowing the slightest breeze to flow through the castle from the still slightly rising sun.

He glanced at his watch and saw that he needed to hurry a bit if he was going to get this over with before the Order members showed up.

As he walked briskly down the halls of Hogwarts he did not run through a last minute checklist, he did not try to think of some way out of this and for Merlin's sake he was not thinking about all the homework he knew would be waiting for him when he got back

Surprisingly, he was thinking about the others: The other time travelers.

Among all of them, he hated to say that he sympathized with Black the most, but he would admit to himself that it was the truth. The man had gone through hell and back, quite literally, and the thought that all his recent work had been in vain was rather depressing. Severus would normally take pleasure in depressing that particular man, but there were only so many wars and trials you could go through without finally growing up and getting over it.

Lupin was another matter. The man had gone through as much, if not more than Black, and yet he did not have to go to Azkaban for twelve years, though he was certainly put through his own type of hell, if you could call it that. But through it all was a bloody werewolf, something Severus knew he could not control and made Lupin's life all the more unfair. But that in no way meant that Severus was going to sympathize with that plight. He did have his limits.

Severus supposed that this trip had at least done some good for each of them. Closure, though he had never really needed it in his own life, he had heard was always a positive thing, sometimes curing emotional wounds that couldn't be healed by anything else.

The youngest one, however...Potter. He was also another matter entirely. Severus knew quite a bit about loosing ones parents, though he never really enjoyed his much in the first place. Still the reality of being alone was quite a load on a child's shoulders. Severus wondered if it would now be easier or harder for Potter, now that he had gotten to know and see his parents. Severus would have been just fine without either, but he had to admit that James and Lily Potter had always been sickeningly sweet to their child, just one of the many reasons Severus despised him so much.

He finally reached the large gargoyle and at once said the password and stepped onto the revolving staircase. Within moments he was in the deathly silent and still Headmaster's Office. Albus was nowhere in sight and most of the portraits still snoozing in their frames. The few that were awake seemed to heed him no mind.

He carefully took out the flask and set it down, followed by another flask and then an empty beaker, moving quickly, he went around the desk. Pulling out a scrap of parchment he scribbled down the date Albus, Black, Lupin and he had decided on.

It had been a tricky decision, but they had all agreed to at least let some time have passed since they left, as they weren't exactly sure what had transpired while they were away. That way it was also more likely they wouldn't accidentally run into themselves, which opened up a whole other batch of problems that no one wanted to deal with at this point.

Severus went back around Albus' desk and took a deep breath. He really had no reason to be worried; he had done this exact same thing before in this exact room. In fact, he had chosen this room specifically because he knew that this room wouldn't change a bit within the next ten years.

He wished he could say that he had realized that fact earlier and that was why he had picked that room before, but in all truthfulness he couldn't claim the honor.

Snapping himself out of his hesitation, he grabbed the flasks, pouring them together and adding the date moments after.

Purple and then black smoke quickly filled up the room. Several of the portraits began murmuring to each other, wondering what was going on.

But it seemed as quickly as it had come, the smoke suddenly disappeared and the portraits gaped in wonder as no sight was seen of the Potions Master being in the room just moments before.

A few minutes later, Order members began filing in.

And the portraits remained silent.

----

It was easier, he figured, to not drag out another goodbye.

He remembered saying goodbye to James, Lily and Harry about a week before they were killed, just after Peter was quickly and quietly made their new secret keeper. He had laughed and cried as he hugged Lily goodbye, bounced Harry a few times and managed to hold James for a good five minutes before he finally pulled away, promising them both that he would not let them die.

After all, he thought the secret did lay with him. He was the only one who knew it was Peter, and Peter was the only one who knew where the Potters were. Leave it to Voldemort to just skip over him in the steps.

Sirius wiped his eyes dry as he, Remus and Harry hurried along the passageway to Honeydukes. He figured that by about this time Snape would be gone and Dumbledore would not be frankly explaining to the others why the time travelers would not be at the meeting.

Sure, James, 'Sirius' and 'Remus' would chase after them, but they would be long gone, and by the time those kids even got close, the time travelers would jump behind the veil, Fate would do her thing and the young Marauders would suddenly wonder why they were going to the Ministry. They would start to wonder why Peter wasn't with them, and they would barely remember Emily and Arianna.

The long, painful and deadly silent trip to the Ministry building would haunt Sirius for the rest of his life. He went through different scenarios in his head, playing and replaying what he stayed up all night thinking about : ways to cheat Fate.

It wouldn't work, he knew that by now. He tried to make himself stop, but he didn't manage to until the stepped off the Knight Bus, disguised as two Ministry workers and a Hogwarts Intern at the ministry (they hoped no one would realize that Hogwarts classes didn't start for another week), and he heard Harry give a small, startled cry.

He had only tripped accidentally, breaking the fall with his hand and causing it to scrape up a bit, but it was enough to fully snap Sirius out of the past and back into the present. He carefully helped Harry back up, ignoring Remus' curious looks and Harry's questioning face, and led them into the Ministry, getting easy access with the passed Dumbledore had given them and walking right into the Department of Mysteries.

As usual it was deathly quiet and seemingly deserted. Sirius often wondered why they had all these rooms down here if barely anyone ever went in them, but figured it was just another one of those things he would have to be an Unspeakable to understand.

His grip finally lessened on Harry when he pushed open the door to the Death Chamber.

All three of them stopped short upon entering as they saw the tattered veil blowing slightly in the unseen wind.

Sirius was the first to step down into the room, Harry and Remus being quick to follow.

Ten seconds later, the large wind died down, the veil calmed back to a gently flutter and the Death Chamber was empty and silent once more.

----

A harsh whisper was heard from the veil and suddenly a force shot out from it, within seconds the aura, faster than the speed of light erased all trace of the four people who had just traveled through time.

----

Mid step, the three young men who had just been about to enter the Ministry for Magic stopped short.

The oldest of these men, a rather well known wizard named James Potter, turned to his companions in confusion.

"What are we doing here?"

----

In the high Headmasters Office in Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore stopped speaking suddenly, loosing his train of thought as he felt information being whisked from his mind. He tried for a moment to hold onto it, but suddenly wondered what on earth he had just been trying to explain, and stopped trying. Turning back to the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore began explaining their need to root out the spy that had infiltrated their ranks and trying in vain to answer questions as to why four certain young men were not present at the meeting.

----

Lily Potter felt her heart clench suddenly as she sat in the Order meeting and started a bit when she realized that James was not sitting next to her. She tried to remember where he had gone, but couldn't. Her eyes strayed to Dumbledore and he seemed to stumble on his speech for a moment before quickly recovering and reminding the group about the spy.

She shivered unconsciously and glanced at everyone sitting around her.

She wished that James, Sirius, Remus and Peter would get there soon. She needed people around who she knew she could trust.

In the mean time, she reached down, handing her small son Harry a few more toys to drool on as he played at her feet, quite forgetting about the strange man who had looked so much like his father...but wasn't.

----

Far away, deep within the Cliffs of Moher off the coast of Ireland, Peter Pettigrew walked away from giving his daily report to the Dark Lord. He stopped short of a moment, wondering suddenly why he was heading towards the cramped living quarters of Voldemort's hideout when he should be getting back to his own house. He suddenly remembered that there was an Order meeting scheduled for today, and the Dark Lord would not be pleased if he missed it.

He stepped out into the sunshine, feeling for some strange reason that it had been days since he had seen the light, Peter hurried back to his apparating spot and home to England.

----

Back in his secret lair, Lord Voldemort once again read over the paper in his hand, wondering why on earth he had been getting so much information on the Potter child. It was the Longbottom's son he should be going after....wasn't it?

His evil eyes scanned the page, widening as he read of the extreme power of the two Potters, remembering the three times he had faced them and the defiance they held before his presence.

His face soured at the thought.

He crumpled the page in his hand, robes sweeping out behind him as he left the room, not exactly knowing why, but deciding once and for all to kill the Potter child at all costs.

Prophecies like this one were not meant to be taken lightly.

----

Four young men met up consequentially on the ground of Hogwarts, each of them members of the legendary Marauders who had scoured the halls of the school in their day.

They greeted each other warmly, none of them brining up the awkward moment that they had all experienced just a while before, and headed up to the Headmaster's office together.