Harry Potter and the Marauders' Seventh Year

Chapter 1

The moment he was back in his senses, Harry could smell the musky scent of a forest. He snapped his eyes open. Not just any forest – this scent was all too familiar. The Forbidden Forest. He frowned. How was he at Hogwarts? Looking around, he saw Ron and (with a skip of his heartbeat) Ginny with similar expressions of confusion, and Hermione with one of worry and fear. She stumbled towards him, holding up a broken time-turner.

"Harry," she whimpered. "Harry, it's broken. These things, when broken, can send people really far back in time. Oh Harry, we're in a Hogwarts before the war! Look!" She pointed in the direction of the castle, and they all looked eyes wide with shock.

"It's... perfect." Ginny whispered. And 'perfect' about summed it up. The Quidditch Pitch was in its immaculate, grand condition, and all the windows, towers and roofs of the castle as they had been before May 2nd 1998 - the Battle of Hogwarts. Ron was the first to voice his thoughts.

"We've come back in time! It makes sense!" He said with a spark of hope. Harry immediately dampened that spark.

"No. It - it can't be. It's a trick, an illusion. It's too good to be true." He almost whispered the last part to himself. To think that here was an unbroken world was too promising. It was some rebellious dark wizard, trying to make them go mad.

"Think about it Harry. Broken time-turner, Hogwarts before war, younger trees. Look! You can't deny that! These trees are definitely greener than even our first year." Hermione was nearly back to her 'I'm going to the library' self. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to look at the tree.

"No, it can't be." He refused to fall for this trick, only to have it torn away.

"Well, how about we go up to the headmaster's office? We can talk to Dumbledore?" Ginny suggested.

"Dumbledore is dead!" Harry replied harshly. "I saw it."

Ginny took a step back, hands held up in both surrender, and a 'calm down' motion. "Look, let's just go up, then we'll see, okay?"

At Ginny's words, Harry relented. They walked up to the double doors cautiously, and pushed them open. The four were greeted with silence, and frowned, before Ron clapped a hand to his forehead. "It was August the 30th when we left, wasn't it? If the date stayed the same, even if the year changed, term hasn't started yet!"

With a few mumbled agreements, they walked in the direction of the headmaster's office. Once there, they saw that the gargoyle had already moved aside, but could only hear Fawkes singing softly - no human voices. Harry held his breath at the sound of Fawkes' song. Silently the four started up the spiralled staircase leading to the circular room above. When they reached the closed door, they looked apprehensively at each other, and Hermione knocked. To their utter shock, Dumbledore himself opened it. Harry felt light-headed. Either this was a very realistic charm, or they really had come back in time. Dumbledore's death had left Harry a little lost, and angry at the world. Who could he turn to for guidance? How would he find the Horcruxes? Of course, they had managed it in the end, but Hogwarts without Dumbledore had become a horrible place with foulness in the air - not a place for children wanting to learn.

Ron was gulping like a goldfish out of water, and Hermione and Ginny were simply staring. Dumbledore, chuckling slightly at their flabbergasted expressions, spoke.

"Hello. What is the matter with you four?" He asked kindly.

Hermione recovered first. "Er, Sir, what year is this?" She questioned carefully.

"Well, I believe it is the year 1977." He replied, bemused. Before anyone could even blink, Harry shouted, "No, no it's NOT. This is some horrible trick of some old Death Eater, and you're in our imaginations, and this is all FAKE!" Tears welled in his eyes, and though he hastily tried to hide them, everyone saw. "1977 was my parents' final year. If we have some back in time, they're alive here, somewhere." In his life, everyone was gone, except for the three beside him and the Weasleys. Everyone who should've raised him was dead.

"Umm, sorry professor, but do you happen to have any students by the name of James Potter, Lily Evans, Remus Lupin or Sirius Black?" Hermione directed her question to Dumbledore.

"Yes, I do." He said fondly. "How do you know them? In fact, you act as though you know me too, but I've never met you. How is that?" Dumbledore's features were etched in an expression of confusion, but then something seemed to click. "Are you from the future?" He asked. Ron glanced at Hermione, who nodded. "My, my..." He seemed at a loss for words. "Well, can you give me your names? Full names, of course."

"Ginevra Molly Weasley."

"Ronald Bilius Weasley."

"Hermione Jean Granger."

"Harry James Potter."

Dumbledore hummed, then said, "You will of course, need to stay here, until we think of a better solution. You are safe here. We will need to change your names so people can't recognise them, and perhaps give you a Glamour. Harry, Hermione, I can make you brother and sister, if you want. Ronald, Ginevra, your surname can just be Wells, because it's close to Weasley, but not too close."

"Sir, I'm muggleborn, so Harry and I can share a last name. I can redo the Glamour when needed too." Hermione said, trying to make the situation easier.

Harry grinned. Harry James Granger. That sounded okay. Now he just needed curly hair and a bunch of wisdom. He had decided to go with the 'we're in the past' act, unless proven wrong. As Dumbledore nodded his approval, Hermione moved closer to Harry, and started muttering spells. "I'll give you dark brown, almost black hair, and make it kind of curly, so it matches mine. I'll make my hair a little darker, and slightly less curly. This way you can keep your green eyes and not look out of the ordinary. Oh, and I'll disillusion your glasses so you can still see but won't look like James. Maybe I'll make your face a little more pointed at the chin, to match my own....." She said as she worked. "There, how's that?" Hermione finished, turning to face the others.

"You two actually look like siblings. Wicked." Ron said incredulously. Hermione blushed.

Dumbledore too looked surprised, but more at Hermione's skill than the change. "Ok, at the Welcome Feast, I'll have you in the corridor to the left. When I call your names, feel free to step out and wave. I'll introduce the head girl and head boy and you can follow them around, just because you're 'new'. I presume you know your way around Hogwarts, but what year and which houses are you from?" He asked.

"Gryffindor." The four said in unison. They laughed, and continued.

"Well, Hermione Ron and I would have technically finished our seventh year, but circumstances...." Harry explained, and then trailed off, unsure of what he could tell Dumbledore.

"And I'm supposed to be starting my seventh year." Ginny added.

"You can all do your seventh year classes together then." Dumbledore smiled at them. "Now, to add you to the registry... Hermione Jean Granger, you said? Okay, Harry James Granger, Ronald Bilius Wells, and Ginevra Molly Wells. But I can introduce just your preferred names, if you would like." He looked questioningly at them.

"Er, just Ginny will work thanks."

"And I'm Ron."

For the rest of the evening, they discussed their backgrounds, classes and how they should act around other students so they seemed 'new'. Ron and Ginny's appearances were changed slightly so no one from their own time could recognise them and they didn't resemble the current Weasleys too closely. At long last, the four made their way to the Gryffindor dormitories, where they found beds with new trunks by them, marked with their made-up names. Harry opened the trunk to find an assortment of clothes, books and other supplies. Exhausted by the long day, he got into bed without changing and fell into a deep sleep.

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