evergreen, marauders time travel

chapter one: what the fuck had i gotten myself into?

"And why me?" I asked curiously.

"Because . . . we trust you," James said sincerely.

"Yeah, yeah, I got that, thanks," I dismissed. It was a sweet statement, but I had bigger fish to fry right now. "I mean why not one of you?"

"Because if we see ourselves, then a lot could admittedly go wrong," He clarified. "But if we see you, it'll be like another normal Tuesday."

"I'm sorry, I'm out."

I wasn't actually sorry. This was a moronic idea, no matter how noble the reasoning for it may have been.

"Fine, we'll get Marlene to do it then," Sirius huffed. He and I got along surprisingly well for two people who were so different, but he certainly wasn't going to be my biggest fan after this. I mean, he'd get over it eventually, but he had a habit of getting at least a little bit hurt when I refused to participate in his schemes. I'm not entirely sure if it's supposed to be a guilt trip or if he's just overly dramatic, but his mini toddler tantrums whenever I brush him off don't go unnoticed.

"Get me to do what?"

As if on cue, Marlene let herself into the boys dorm and took a seat on the bed behind me. My butt was comfortably planted on a wooden chair that James transfigured from a book as practice for McGonagall's class. He had also managed to make another two chairs for him and Sirius, as well as a table that sat between us. His transfiguration skills were certainly impressive, but I was a little miffed that he had decided to use a book as the object to transfigure. I could be reading valuable information, but instead I was sitting in it. Or on it.

"We need you to go back in time to last night and prevent Peter from ending up in the Hospital Wing," James told Marlene honestly, hoping for a positive response.

"Peter's in the Hospital Wing? What happened?"

I was astounded that the Hospital Wing part had been what she had taken from James' sentence. Not that I wasn't worried about Peter too, but I just kind of figured that it wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence for one of the boys to have an overnight stay in the infirmary. Although, I supposed that being friends with the marauders for years as Marlene had been would make you just as accustomed to random mentions of time travel as it would to Hospital Wing visits.

Following Marlene's heavily warranted question, the boys chanced glances at each other as if communicating silently with their eyes. I don't know how they did it, but with few facial expressions and head shakes, they were somehow able to understand exactly what each other meant. When they finally seemed to come to some sort of an agreement, Sirius spoke up.

"We can't tell you that."

"Then we can't help you," Marlene bargained.

"That's not fair," James pouted.

"Hey, if you four are off wandering around in the forbidden forest at night, then I'm not gonna stop you." Marlene held her hands up in the air as a sign of surrender. "But I'm also not going to help you without knowing the truth about what I'm getting myself into. So, pick your poison."

"Can you explain the options again?"

"Tell us and get our help, or don't tell us and leave us alone," Marlene simplified for them. I had to go over her words a few times in my heads before they sunk it and I abruptly stopped nodding in agreement.

"Hey, hang on, speak for yourself," I interjected. I wasn't going to let her get me caught in the middle of this inevitable mess. "I'm out either way."

"But Peter—"

"Peter—" I interrupted James pointedly "—Is going to be just fine, so long as you three don't go screwing anything up by meddling with time. Mary and I are going to go visit him now, if anyone would care to join us?"

"So that's a 'no', then?"

"Yes, James, my answer is a no. Not that the word has ever had much meaning to you anyway," I added slightly resentfully.

He was kind of over it now, but I did have to spend a decent portion of the past year rejecting James Potter's date proposals and flirtatious advances. He'd toned it down recently, allowing us to become more civil and friendly towards one another, but apparently there was still a part of me that hadn't gotten over it yet. The boy really couldn't take no for an answer.

"Fair call," James agreed.

"You're not going to stop us though, right?" Sirius sought clarity. It took a great deal of will power not to roll my eyes at him.

"Have I not made my feelings abundantly clear? This is a terrible, foolish idea, and I have every incentive to inform McGonagall of the item I'm sure is illegally in your possession, as well as your unauthorised trip to the Forbidden Forest after curfew," I declared adamantly, hoping he would get the message this time.

"Are you going to?" James asked. He was giving me those goddamn puppy dog eyes again.

I leaned in across the table, so that I was directly addressing him. "Can I trust you not to do anything stupid?"

"It's James and Sirius," Marlene interrupted before he had the chance to reply. "Stupidity is a key personality trait."

"Lily we know it's a bad idea," Remus sighed, seeming resigned to the fact that this was apparently their only option. Which it wasn't, mind you. Trusting Madame Pomfrey to do her job would have been a much simpler one. I really couldn't see the necessity for time travel in this situation. "But we need to do it. For Peter."

"Alright, how about this," I proposed, picking up the time turner. It was bound to be safer in my possession than in theirs. "I'll take it until Peter gets better and the temptation to use it subsides. Then, I'll give it back to James and he'll take it back home, where it belongs."

"That seems reasonable." James nodded in agreement.

"Since when have we ever been reasonable?" Sirius pointed out aggressively. Without warning, he lurched himself at me to grab the time turner from my hands. I held it from his reach, but his arms were longer than mine, and when he wrapped one of them around me from behind, I couldn't escape his grasp.

"Sirius, get off me!" I screeched. I looked to James and Remus for help, but neither of them knew how to intervene. Marlene was too busy laughing at the altercation to do anything about it.

So much for friendship.

With one final and desperate dive from behind me, Sirius launched himself over my shoulders. The full weight of his body on mine caused my knees to buckle and fall to the ground. His fingertips were so close to the time turner that in his attempts to snatch it, he knocked it out of my own hands and it smashed against the wooden floors.

Too little too late, the other three gasped. Figures.

I stared at it in horror, my arm still outstretched and Sirius still lying on top of me, as a storm of sand emerged from the tiny hourglass — one billion times more grains than ever could have possible fit in there — and circled around the five of us. Everything started shaking and flying as if we were in the eye of a tornado, and eventually the sand became so thick that I could no longer see my friends.

What the fuck had I gotten myself into?