A Change of Plans

Chapter Six

Both girls woke at the sound of footsteps outside their room. They quickly and silently moved away from their previous position at the door and into their sleeping bags. They barely made it. Just as their heads silently eased onto their pillows, the door cracked open.

They waited for it to close, and then some. And then they got up and peeked out of the room.

The hallway was deserted. So were the stairs. Patsy scowled at how open everything was; there were no good places to hide.

"We need a Disillusionment Charm," she mouthed. Annie shook her head in dismay. They would just have to risk it. She motioned Patsy down the stairs and then followed.

They fortunately reached the landing without any major mishaps. They were undetected. They were good at this. Pranking had sometimes meant slipping around in the dark while others were still awake.

The two doors to the kitchen were closed and, most probably, locked. Only to be expected. They had agreed ahead of time that picking the locks would not be smart; they would make a sound, and there also was most likely wards on the door. So they crouched down, one on each door, and pressed eyes to keyholes.

There were only four people in the room. Two the girls had met. The others they had never seen in there lives--but they knew them.

Albus Dumbledore sat at the head of the table. His beard and hair really are silver, Patsy noted. Wow.

To the right of Dumbledore sat the Under Secretary to the Minister: Lily Evans Potter. Annie grinned. Her eyes were bright green, and her hair red enough to rival the Weasley's. Not that they had met the Weasleys yet. But then, it had only been a week since they had forced Sirius through the fireplace.

Next to Lily, with his arm around her shoulders, sat James Potter. He was looking a little nervous. Something was up. But the girls did not dare exchange a glance, because the one next to James started to speak.

"Dumbledore, I asked you to come here tonight," Sirius said. "Because of my soon-to-be stepdaughter and her friend. As James has told you, they caught me talking to him through the Floo Network, and then shoved me through and followed."

"Where are these girls?" asked Lily, looking at Sirius. But James answered her.

"Asleep. I checked before we started."

Sirius snorted.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, James," he said. "They're as tricky as we were. If it weren't for my days as a Marauder, they would have gotten me long before now."

"'Gotten you' Sirius? What do you mean by that?" Lily asked. "They seemed like nice girls when I checked on them earlier."

"Yeah, well, that was when they were asleep," Sirius said, looking agitated. He started to tick off on his fingers. "Beetles in my soup, a worm in my sandwich, frogs in my bed, hair dye spouting from the shower head...These girls are right little monsters. If I didn't know better, I'd say they could use magic."

Lily snorted.

"The two of you didn't seem to mind it when you did such things to others when you were in school."

"Yeah, well, Eugene's told me it's been like this for every guy she's brought home. The girls have chased them away."

James looked interested.

"Really? How many guys?"

"She didn't say," Sirius said stiffly. "But the point is, they now know about us, and they know way too much."

"Yes," said James. "But that's not because of us. It's because of those books. I've read the first one, and they were right. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is interesting."

Sirius nodded grudgingly.

"And accurate," he said. "Except for the part that you're dead, mate, and I'm missing from the story."

"You're not missing," James said. "It mentions you in the beginning. Albus and Hagrid talk about your motorbike."

"Yes, and then I'm gone for the rest of the book! I'd like to know where am I? I mean, assuming I'm still Harry's godfather in these books, I'd have taken him in. And even if I'm not his godfather, why am I not taking care of him anyway? Or at least Remus, or Peter? Instead, in this stupid book, poor Harry's stuck in an abusive situation with Lily's sister and her idiot husband and spoiled son! Where's the justice in that?"

"The book is written with Harry living with Petunia!?" Lily groaned. "How is she portrayed?"

James counted them off on his fingers.

"She hates magic, she hates you because your a witch, and she hates me because I'm a wizard, and so she hate's Harry because he's our son."

Lily nodded.

"Well, at least it's accurate on that account."

Both Annie and Patsy were plugging their noses and covering their mouths, trying as hard as they could not to laugh. It was not easy.

"Yes, well," Sirius said. He kept checking the door, as though making sure the girls weren't there. Of course, in reality, they were...but he couldn't see them. "What are we going to about this? Or rather, them. According to them, these books are pretty big in the muggle world. And, as they've told me, there are five that had been written so far, and two more in the works. And now that they know that they're somewhat real..."

"And we can't erase their memories," James cut in. "Besides the fact that they know about the charm, even up to the incantation, they also made a valid point: it would certainly alter their minds."

"Not that I'd mind that all too much..." Sirius muttered.

"I suggest," Dumbledore said calmly. "That first we talk to the girls." He turned his head toward the door. "Annie-Elizabeth? Patricia? If you would please come in here, I would be most grateful."

The girls exchanged only half-shocked looks, then grins. They stood, and rushed in to the room. As it transpired, the door was not locked.

Patsy was grinning so broadly that her face looked as though it was about to crack open.

"I'm, like, your number one fan," she gushed at Dumbledore, once again losing her head. "I mean, that thing you did to Fudge in the fifth book! Bloody brilliant."

Annie gave her friend a look, but then couldn't help grinning herself. It was unreal, meeting Albus Dumbledore, as well as Lily Potter!

"Now, let me draw the two of you up a chair,"

Both girls grinned at each other. Then they gasped delightedly as Dumbledore did just that. Two comfortable-looking armchairs landed next to each other, in between Dumbledore and Sirius. Patsy sank into the one nearest the latter, smiling sweetly at him in a way that told him the two of them were up to something. Annie sat down next to her, admiring the chair.

"Just like the one at Harry's hearing," she muttered approvingly, rubbing a hand up and down its arm.

"Now then," Patsy said, folding her hands on the table, her tone businesslike. "What is it that you would like from us, oh great Minister of Magic?"

"Now how do you girls know that?" Sirius demanded. "As Albus is Headmaster in those books you keep raving about?"

"Well, fancy coming from you," Annie snapped at her now least favorite Marauder. "You've only read one of them!"

"Valid point, though," Patsy conceded. "I learned it from this brilliant alternate universe fan fic, Promises Unbroken. Of course, Albus dies at the end..."

Annie gave her yet another look.

"Hey genius," she said. "What if this is that universe? Then we've just given them the future!"

"Just think about it, Einstein," Patsy retorted. "If this was that universe, Sirius would be in Azkaban!"

Annie deflated slightly.

"Oh," she muttered.

"'Fan fics?!'" Lily said faintly. Both girls ignored her.

"Ha ha!" Patsy cried out in triumph, then said loudly, "I was right, Annie was wrong, and I'm triumphant!"

"Oh shut up," Annie said, almost a bit sulkily. Patsy grinned cheekily at her.

"Girls!" James cried, exasperatedly. Both turned to look at him, each of their faces the pictures of innocence.

"Yes?" They asked politely, in perfect unison.

Dumbledore was smiling slightly.

"I have made my decision," he said quietly. All five other occupants of the table whirled to face him.

"Annie and Patsy will stay here in this house, with Sirius. They will be taught magic by me, and will be of great use to the Order."

"Magic?" Lily asked Dumbledore, perplexed. "But I thought Sirius said they were muggle girls?"

Dumbledore smiled gently.

"On the outside, it may appear that way. But in their hearts...Annie-Elizabeth Howard and Patricia Dore are witches."