Chapter 10
A/N: Can I just say, I am so sorry! I really thought I would have so much more time to write at the start of the year since I was going on long plane rides and such, but I never got around to actually writing. I have had a lot on my plate since I moved and lots of other stuff happened. Now that everyone is self-isolating and all that because of COVID-19, I thought I would try my best to write more. So here's chapter 10 I hope it lives up to your expectations. :)
August 11th 1995 3:03 PM
"Well, someone has certainly aged, haven't they," laughed Sirius and he leaned forward in his chair to get a better look at the older version of his godson.
Harry, who had been trying his best to rein in his emotions, almost cracked as he listened to his late godfather's joke. He tried his best to regain his resolve and mostly succeeded if it weren't for his eyes, glistening suspiciously. Harry finally replied to Sirius with a joking grin of his own, "Looking younger than you, though!"
Sirius' face morphed into one of mock outrage as he declared, "I take offence to that, I am younger than you!"
"You sure about that?" Older Harry questioned his godfather, "You, Sirius, are younger than your own godson. That makes perfect sense." Harry said with a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
Sirius looked at Harry for a good couple seconds before turning his head to look at the 15-year-old version of the man. Sirius noticed that the younger Harry was staring at his older self with a look of awe as his jaw hung open. Sirius took his pointer finger and placed it under young Harry's chin before raising it, effectively shutting his awe-struck jaw, with a snap. He turned his attention back to the floating older Harry on the table and smirked, "Well, I might have fallen asleep in Arithmancy, but I know for a fact that you are 39 years old, whereas I am a mere 35." Sirius grinned with a look of triumph, "However, this one on the other hand," He pointed to the younger Harry, "I can safely say I am older."
The older Harry just laughed before turning back to children. "Okay, so to recap, you stole my time turner," he said looking at James, who squirmed under his father's stare, but nodded nonetheless, "You broke said time turner," adult Harry continued and began counting off his fingers.
James continued to fidget but nodded again as his father continued, "In breaking the time turner you transported you, your siblings, your cousins, and Scorpius, to a different time." James looked as if he was going to protest, but nodded again, "a time I might add that is on the brink of war."
"That," James sighed in defeat, "is correct. But in my defence it wasn't my fault, I didn't really break the time turner, Teddy did!" Everyone in the room looked towards Teddy, who was looking incredibly sheepish.
Teddy stepped towards where the floating 3D figure of his godfather was and cleared his throat. "In my defence, if James hadn't snatched it off of Lily, I wouldn't have tripped and tackled James, and thus, the time-turner would still be intact." Older Harry gave him a look that conveyed his displeasure. Teddy rubbed the back of his neck as his hair turned an embarrassed shade of pink. "It's not really my fault I tripped I mean I blame it on my genetics!" Teddy rushed out quickly, raising his hands to the side of his head in defence.
Everyone's eyes snapped to Tonks, who was now standing in the corner of the room. Oh come on! Don't blame me, I haven't even gotten with his father, let alone given birth to him." Tonks protested, shooting Teddy an annoyed look. "Besides if anyone's to blame, it's you, Harry." At the accusation the heads in the room snapped back and forth between Tonks and the 3D Harry. "I mean, I've known James for maybe an hour or so, and I can already tell that he's a huge troublemaker. I don't know about you, but I definitely wouldn't go and leave a time turner laying around when you live in the same house as him." She said, making a strong point as everyone's faces turned thoughtful as they turned back to the floating 3D Harry.
Adult Harry let out a defeated sigh and took off his glasses as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yes, okay. Should I have brought a time turner home, no. Should James have stolen it from my office, definitely not. Should James and Teddy have broken the time turner, well it was an accident, but preferably no." Harry let out another sigh, "In the end, I don't really care whose fault it is, the point is I just need to get the story of what happened with all the details so we can bring you back home." He looked at James and gestured for him to tell him what happened.
"Well we kind of already went over this but since you wanted detail..." James sat in his seat and placed his elbows on the table in front of him, and his face morphed into mock seriousness, "It all began on the morning of my dear mother's thirty-eighth birthday. My siblings and I served our mother breakfast in bed and gave her our amazing birthday gifts, I gave her--"
"James, we don't have all day!" Rose interrupted from next to him.
"Hey, do you want to tell the story or not?!" James objected. Rose just huffed in annoyance, allowing James to continue. "Alright, where was I?"
"James, speed it up." His father told him.
"Okay, okay, clearly what I got mum for her birthday is not deemed as important." James said before resuming his story. "We gave her our gifts, and we were having a jolly time till we were kicked out by our dear father," he shot the adult Harry a disgusted look, while he just blushed in response. "Anyway, moving on, Albus went to go do whatever Albus does for fun, like doing homework or reading or something ." Albus sent his brother a withering glare. "Am I wrong, though?" James gave his brother a questioning glance, where Albus just looked away. "No, okay, well, Lily went to her room to do something. I decided, 'Well it's been a while since I've been to Dad's office' so away I went down the hallway to the room of exciting artifacts, Harry Potter's office!!" James stated with a dramatic flourish of his arms.
Lily smacked her palm on her forehead and muttered under her breath, "I can not believe I'm related to this idiot."
"Oi Lils, who wouldn't want to be related to this?" James said with a dazzling smile and a swoosh of his hair. Lily only rolled her eyes in response, convinced this only further proved her point, of her brother being an absolute idiot.
"Can we continue, please? I don't know how long it will be before your mother comes back," Harry asked his son.
James froze in place and immediately continued, "Yup, okay, so in Dad's office, right, um. I was thinking about what I should nick, I mean, lots of cool things in there. I was looking through his shelves and drawers, and I came across a golden necklace thing, I didn't know what it was, but it looked pretty cool, so I took it! And away I went!" Another eye roll from Lily. "I went into the room to hide it in my secret hiding spot." Then everyone started arriving, I went downstairs, soaked Al in green goo," Sirius, Fred, and George's eyes lit up at the mention of the prank. "Teddy came, told me to fix Al, Dad came, I actually fixed Al, or I fixed what I could, sorry Al, I can't do miracles." Sniggers could be heard around the room while Albus just glared at James. Seeing Albus' glare, James went back to his story. "Right, um, after that I grabbed Louis, we went upstairs, and we brought out the time turner. We didn;t know what it was so we were inspecting it. I thought I had read about it somewhere--" He was interrupted by Rose.
"As if you have ever read anything besides quidditch magazines." Rose said with a look of disbelief.
"Uh, Rosie," she bristled "I'll have you know I read." James said, "Just obviously not as much as you."
"Could we get on with it please James?" His father asked and grimaced, looking over his shoulder at something that the people in Grimmauld place could not see.
"Yes! So Freddie then came in and scared us, we showed him the time turner, he didn't know what it was either. Then Rosie ca--" the girl in question smacked him on the back of his head, "Owww, fine. Then Rose came in with Al and Scorpi-boy and they saw the time-turner. Rose identified it for us and she tried to get it from me. She failed until Lily came in and well Lily yelled at me I handed it over. Teddy then came in with more people, Lily hugged Teddy, so I grabbed the time-turner again. Teddy saw me take it so tried to get it back and in doing so tripped over and tackled me to the ground--which hurt, by the way, you're heavy!" James glared at Teddy. "Finally everyone else came into the room to see what all the noise was about and turns out Teddy smashed the time turner, and so dust swirled, and we landed in Number 12 Grimmauld Place in 1995. The End." James finished and turned to his father, awaiting his answer to his story.
"Okay, I better go get Hermione, and hopefully she's found something that might help." James' father said. "Stay put, whatever you do, don't leave Grimmauld Place. You should expect a call back from us within the next couple hours." He turned to leave the mirror, before he turned back and looked at James. "For what it's worth Jamie, I think you've handled this quite well." A look of pride crossed Harry's features as he finished, "I don't think it was your or Teddy's faults. In the end, I should have left the time turner at my work office, not my home office." he looked a little sheepish, "Now be good, all of you," drawing everyone's attention back to adult Harry, "I don't want any pranks," a stern look at James, Freddie, and Louis, "and, again, do not leave Grimmauld Place. I love all of you, we'll call back soon." Finally finished, the call was disconnected.
A/N: I know this is a pretty short chapter, but I thought I owed it to you guys to give you something. I will be posting continuously this week so stay tuned. :)