Marauders Time Travel : you have so many years of screw ups ahead

everybody loves Sirius

Harry tries and fails to coax any useful information out of The Marauders.

The teens are rather single minded. All he gets in response to his reasonable and important questions are, Why in Merlin's beard are you shacking up with a Malfoy? and Not that we're judging you and Answer the question, sprog. I need the dirty details.

Annoyed and frustrated, he delegates the task to Ron and Hermione. His knackered, best friends stand in the middle of the Gryffindor Common Room, looking helplessly upon the three stowaways.

Hermione is the first to take action, because Harry absolutely refuses to talk to either of The Marauders, ever again.

"Do you know how you got here?"

James smiles at her, "Yeah, we-"

"Of course they do!" Harry scoffs. "Not that they would tell you."

"Ohhh kay." Hermione glances between her friend and the time travelers. "Are you able to get back on your own?"

Remus opens his mouth, but Harry beats him to it, "Not likely. They're not exactly the types to think long term."

"Oy! Could you chill out for second?" Ron grumbles and then lets out a yawn. "I'm starting to understand why they kept you in the dark."

Harry looks at the redhead in betrayal. He huffs, rises from the couch and begins to pace the room.

"I understand that this is a shock for him, but why does he seems so upset?" Hermione whispers to Ron. Of course, everyone hears.

Sirius chips in before Harry can stop him, "Prongs hexed Malfoy."

Ron and Hermione nod slowly, as if this explained everything. The redhead bumps his fist against James' knee conspiratorially. "First rule of time travel, mate: don't attack your son's swotty boyfriend."

"I was defending him!"

"His son?!"

"He's not swotty!" The room turns to look at Harry. "I mean, uh, he's not my boyfriend!" He continues pacing because he absolutely refuses to speak to them.

"Right," Hermione drawls. "How about this? We'll ask you a question and you ask us a question."

"Sounds perfect, love" James winks at the bushy haired brunette, who giggles involuntarily.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake -"

"I'll start," Hermione continues. "Did you use a device to time travel or a spell?"

"A mixture of both actually." Remus sits forward, eager to talk theory despite his earlier reservations. "We reconfigured an old time turner and used a variation of a tracking spell to get it to focus on a specific person in the future. We had trouble, er, figuring out what to use as the target. We needed something that would stabilize the jump."

"Of course," Hermione agrees.

Sirius fakes a yawn and James raises his wand to his head. Both boys were instrumental in constructing the theory of this idea, but had to save face in public, lest anyone thought they put actual effort into something.

Remus continues, "We realized it would be safer to use a relative as the target. Blood magic is the most powerful after all" – The golden trio share a look that does not go unnoticed – "now this time turner works almost like a hound picking up a scent from a cloth. Anyway, James' relatives were the most obvious choice because," the werewolf trails off and glances warily between the golden trio. "Of reasons," he finishes lamely.

Translation: The Blacks were lunatic blood supremacists, the Lupins were Remus' estranged, werewolf-hating parents, and neither Sirius nor Remus had any plans of having children. Yes, the golden trio knew exactly why they had chosen the Potters.

Neither Ron nor Hermione question why Peter Pettigrew's relations were not taken into consideration for this adventure. They also do not question his current whereabouts. Harry would surely blow his last fuse.

"Interesting," she hums. "And of course, you could use James' parents to return."

"Exactly," Remus smiles warmly at her and she beams at him.

"Alright enough flirting," Sirius huffs, but there's a grin on his lips. He curls a hand around Remus' knee. Ron does the same to Hermione. James and Harry gag simultaneously, though neither would admit to it later. "Now it's our turn to ask the question."

"What do you want to know?"

"If he's Prong's kid," Sirius pauses dramatically with a devilish smirk on his face. Harry prepares himself for a major, timeline-altering question. The answer to it would surely break the hearts of almost everyone in that room. "Then why's he's so hot when his dad looks like the wrong end of bubotuber?"

Ron bursts into raucous laughter, followed closely by the other Gryffindors, minus James, who is currently trying to stab Sirius with his wand.

"Waste of question, Padfoot. We all know Lily's my future wife."

"Don't tell that to Evans," Sirius mumbles.

"You're so young, Sirius." Ron's blue eyes are fond and wistful. Harry understands. For the first time, his godfather's ever handsome face is free of scars and wrinkles and trauma. However, his expression turns indignant at the red head's comment. "No, it's a good thing. The older you would've, uh, will, like that. Bloody obsessed with his face, that one."

"Yup. That's our Padfoot," James coos, grabbing for Sirius' cheeks. "Bet he'll get a good laugh from this when we pop by."

The golden trio stiffens at the implication. Ron and Harry shoot Hermione their patented 'what do we do' look, in much the same way as toddlers would raise their arms when they wanted to be held. She pinches the bridge of her nose.

"Look, none of you are leaving this castle until we know for sure you won't muck anything up, like prevent Harry's birth or induce the rise of the fifth generation of troll kings." The boys begin to protest, but Hermione silences them with a look. "Now, you three are going to sleep in the Room of Requirement. You've already figured out it's location in your timeline, yes? We'll meet you there at five tomorrow morning. It'd be best to avoid the other students while we sort all this."

"You're just going to leave us to fend for ourselves?" Sirius pouts.

Hermione gives him a small smile, "You lot know this castle better than we ever could."

The marauders look a bit miffed at the nod to their secret map, but the golden trio are already shuffling up the stairs.

At the last moment, Ron turns, "By the way Professor Lupin, I mean Remus, I mean er-anyway. It may have been different in your time, but the full moon is coming up in about two weeks."

"Well that was just, ugh, rude is what it was!" Remus stutters out, after a prolonged silence following the trio's departure. He was not yet used to having his furry little problem come up in small talk. "How do I know, for that matter, they are not werewolves, hmmm?"

"Whatever, Moony. Can you believe the way Harry talked to me? What ever happened to respecting your elders?"

Sirius shrugs, grinning wide, "They liked me."