My Vacation in 1977

My Vacation in 1977

Chapter Fifteen: With a Bang

"It's a little disgusting isn't it?"

Harry looked up briefly from his treacle tart, seeing the couple from the corner of his eye, before snorting and returning to his food. Sirius pouted at him.

"Don't ignore me! I need someone to rant to because James has gone all mushy and responsible me." Sirius grabbed a strand of Harry's hair and tugged the boy's head aside, Harry didn't pay this any mind and continued directing his fork into his mouth with little difficulty. Sirius was feeling a little bit like a third wheel, he understood that, he felt the same way with Ron and Hermione for a little while after they started dating, but Sirius was becoming more of a nuisance than a friend. At least, at the moment he was more like a nuisance.

Surprisingly enough, though not for Harry or Remus or Professor White, James and Lily turned out to be a pretty cute couple. Once Lily had James completely whipped of course. Though James still ran off and did a little mischief making when he could, he was more responsible for his actions…well mostly responsible. He still blamed everything on Snape or another Slytherin when he could. But he was getting better. And Lily actually laughed and made jokes now! Actual FUNNY jokes, Harry was willing to bet that her blood pressure wasn't quite so high as well either. And best of all, since they'd gotten together in January, they were still together now months later at the end of the school year and he knew for a fact the relationship would grow and thrive despite everything that had happened in their pasts. Though he had no doubt they would have their spats, supposedly that kept the relation heated but he still didn't see how, but whatever worked for them…

"Harrrrrrry…." Sirius whined. "Do you want to–"

"No, I will not go prank Slytherins with you."

Sirius let out a sigh, things were so boring now! It was their very last year of school; they were supposed to go out with a bang! They were the Marauders for Merlin's sake, and the year wasn't supposed to end on a flat note, there should be some big elaborate prank just as everyone was leaving school, so they'd never forget James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin or Peter Pettigrew.

Now if only Harry would get off his stubborn ass and help.

"But Harry! Only one more day left! One! We've finished our tests and all that's left is the very last day where all seventh years just get to sit around and do nothing until the departing feast! If that isn't a perfect opportunity I don't know what is!"

Harry put down his plate gently, and turned to Sirius only to twitch the hand grasping his fork very suddenly at the look on Sirius' face. Damn him and his stupid blue eyes. He was suddenly very glad that his "date" with Sirius ended up being more of a prank fest than anything else. They were good friends but overall he couldn't really see himself spending the rest of his life with someone like Sirius, because not only was Sirius old in the future, any person he dated with a similar personality would remind him of his godfather and that was exactly the problem. Godfather. They'd be too much like his father figure for comfort. He was pretty open minded, but incest was one thing he did not do.

Still it was fun to prance around Hogsmeade making fun of just about every Slytherin they saw. Malfoy's hair was still slightly a shade of red. That was for Ron mostly, he wondered how Draco would react when he came back and explained that his father had been a red head for a week before getting most of the spell off. He always kept reminding himself that they weren't allies yet, right now Snape and Malfoy were still two-bit scum Death Eaters and it wasn't until after his parents were dead would they change their ways. So he relished this chance while he could prank the hell out of them and not feel bad about it.

"My answer is still no Sirius."

"Fine, you'll see! I can make a super duper prank without anyone's help and you'll all be jealous! Jealous you hear!"

Remus looked up from his book, smiling indulgently, "I'm sure we'll be terribly jealous Sirius, just try your best."

From his side Peter nodded, his mouth full of mashed potatoes making his cheeks bulge.

Sirius mock gagged, "Geese Peter, chew you food."

The boy blushed but swallowed quickly, "Heh, sorry Sirius."

Sirius perked up, "That's alright Pete. Say, how about helping ol' Sirius with a prank for tomorrow eh?"

Peter looked sorrowful, "Sorry Sirius, but I still have to make up that exam I missed."

Sirius nodded in understanding but still grumbled. Today as they were on their way to their Charms exam the Marauders had run into a batch of Slytherins and the end result was Peter in the hospital wing, ironically enough, vomiting slugs. Thus, he missed his exam and was making it up tomorrow. It was cutting it close, but he'd finish in time to have some fun with his friends.

"Damn Slytherins, they ruin everything." Sirius snorted, "I can still do a completely awesome prank on my own though."

Remus didn't even look up from his book this time, "You do that Sirius."

"You all have so little faith in me…"

Harry looked over again at Sirius, his fork still in his mouth. He tried to smile a little but refused to swallow his tart and sacrifice the lasting taste in his mouth, so his smile looked more like a grimace than anything. Well he supposed grimacing at this moment would be appropriate too, considering he was almost afraid of what Sirius would think up for a prank without James or Remus censoring it before hand…

Later that night, Harry say against his headboard with a thoughtful expression on his face. He'd been wondering for a while now how he and Sirius were supposed to get home. He'd asked his godfather but he had been just as clueless. He'd also asked Dumbledore only to receive a mischievous smile, which in Dumbledore speak, meant that he was up to something that would no doubt be fairly unpleasant for him.

He snorted, of course things would be difficult for him, he was Harry Potter. Difficult was practically his middle name. Pushing the thoughts from his head he flopped down against his sheets and brought his comforter over his head. He was sure the solution would come up eventually.

The following day after that was surprisingly uneventful for a last day of school. They'd woken up late for breakfast, and as a result spent the morning down in the kitchen with the house elves, who were very pleased to see the Marauders which led to Lily's suspicions being peaked and a world of hurt for James for "abusing the services of the house elves to his own benefit when they had a whole school to look after." James therefore kept his mouth shut about the fact that he'd known about the kitchens since first year, instead of just figuring it out his seventh year as he'd told Lily. The man was not without some basic survival instincts.

Harry spent a brief time with the younger Sirius, in which they skipped around the dungeons taunting Slytherins for the last time; Harry even had a scarf for a memento. He just hoped that Snape wouldn't realize whose scarf it actually was…

Then for the rest of the afternoon he went over a final charms lesson with Lily, he was sort of pleased and pissed off at the same time when she levitated him in loops around the great lake. Pleased that she had taken to the charms so well and pissed that she'd tried her first real human trial on him. He could have blown up or something!

It finally came down to the feast, and Harry was feeling a little twitchy. Looking all around the hall he didn't fail to notice that the younger of the two Blacks was no where to be seen. He suspected that Sirius was up to that great big prank of his. He looked towards James, who looked desperately like he wanted to join him but Lily kept a tight grip on his hand, keeping him from getting into mischief. And every time he'd attempt to make an excuse she would squeeze his hand viciously and say something like. "You wouldn't want to leave me here all alone would you honey?" And James would look thoroughly cowed and settle down again to listen into his girlfriend chatter with her fellow female friends, lest Lily ask him a question about the conversation and he be unprepared. There would be hell to pay if it came to that. Harry almost felt sorry for him.

Almost. If it wasn't so damn funny to watch.

On his other side Remus had lifted himself from his books and was making ample chatter with Peter, who would load his plate with mashed potatoes every few minutes. Over this year Harry had come to realize that Peter had some strange obsession with potatoes of any kind. It was strange, but could be put to good use should he ever feel the urge to poison the little rat in the future. He could be the first person ever to attempt to break into Azkaban in order to do so, but then again, he didn't want that type of publicity. People would question his already uncertain sanity. No, he did not want to read another article about himself ever again if he could help it.

This left Harry rather alone as he grabbed another piece of treacle tart only to pause for a moment and shift his hand to the right to grab a piece of cheesecake covered with strawberries instead. Harry frowned; he was never not in the mood for treacle tart. To suddenly shift to cheesecake was rather odd…and it was cheesecake! Not nearly as sweet as treacle tart and it was well…made with cream cheese, not his favorite spread by far. In fact, he rather disliked cream cheese and he knew for a fact the house elves made a top layer of sour cream with their cheese cakes and he didn't like that either. He frowned, something must be wrong.

He was broken from his thoughts when Sirius burst through the doors with a triumphant grin on his face. With little to no grace he slumped down next to Harry, encircling his arm around his smaller friend.

"So my fine feathered friend, how are you on this fine night?"

Harry looked down at his plate of cheesecake, with strawberries, then back to Sirius and said in a flat voice, "I'm eating cheesecake."

Sirius looked at the cheesecake, then up at Harry then to Harry's discarded piece of treacle tart. He reached a hand up to his forehead.

"Are you feeling ill? Have you experienced any dizzy spells of any sort? Quick! How many fingers am I holding up?!"

Harry waved away Sirius' hand with little to no concern, "I'm feeling great I swear, it's just…I guess I'm having an off day."

Sirius frowned, "Well, I know for a fact you never eat cheesecake, and there you are, just shoveling it into your mouth!"

Harry looked down at his already half eaten cheesecake; he hadn't realized that he'd started to eat it. He poked his dessert with a fork once more before placing the little plate back onto the wooden table. Now that he realized he'd taken a bite he thought he felt slightly nauseated. Pushing awake the cheesecake he picked up a piece of treacle tart again and wolfed it down to get the taste of cheese out of his mouth.

Sirius raised a brow, "It really tastes that bad to you?"

Harry simply nodded.

Sirius shrugged a waved a hand, as if to say "whatever" before he remembered what he came over to tell Harry.

"Harry, Harry! Get a load of this; I have the most awesome prank planned!"

"Is that so?"

Sirius nodded furiously, "Yeah, just you wait!" He looked extremely smug, crossing his arms over his chest.

Harry raised an eye brow, "Uh huh, and what is this oh so superior prank of yours?"

The other boy only smirked, "You'll have to wait like everyone else! But trust me, its going to be bloody fantastic!"

Harry gave Sirius one last look before said boy turned away from him to talk to James and save him from his girlfriend. He was mildly concerned about this prank but without either Remus or James in on it, the preparation was probably sub par so he wasn't worried really.

From there on the feast went as planned with Albus presenting the Quidditch, to Gryffindor, and the house cup, to Ravenclaw. He made his little speech about how he would miss the graduating class and how he hoped to see everyone next year for another fun year of learning, all that jazz. About half way through this Harry looked at Sirius, who was wiggling with energy in his seat. Harry smiled a little; his "super awesome prank" must be coming up soon.

"-and without further ado I wish to sing the school song one last time…"

But before Albus could continue a sudden bang rang throughout the hall as the great double doors opened and boomed against the stone walls. From the doors swarms of black cloaks poured forth and spread throughout the hall, leaving one last tall cloaked stranger to step forward. Harry instantly knew who it was; after all, no one else was so supremely smug and arrogant all the time. Plus, his scar burned like hell.

"What? No invitation Albus? I'm hurt." Voldemort held a hand over his heart dramatically, his hood falling off in the process. This revealed the still somewhat handsome, though disfigured, face of Voldemort. All Harry could think was that he was grateful that he still had a nose…

Albus stepped around the head table gracefully, "But then again, you never waited for an invitation, did you Thomas?"

Voldemort scowled, twisting his face even more. "Very true…" He made a motion with his wrist and the Death Eaters scattered about the tables, holding wands to the students.

"Now, I assure you, no one shall be harmed as long as you follow my simple requests." Voldemort stalked forward, holding his wand steady on Dumbledore who had yet to pull out his own. "The book, the one used to send the school letters, hand it over."

Dumbledore pushed his glasses up, "And what use do you have for it?"

"It will simplify my plans greatly, nip things in the bud as they say. Kill the mudbloods before they can even learn to defend themselves, and if a few muggles die in the process, well, sacrifices must be made…"

"I'll never hand the book over to you."

Voldemort looked on with lidded eyes, "A shame I predicted this. I'll have to fetch it myself. But in the meantime I'll rid you of some garbage you have laying around. You'll thank me for this later." With a dramatic whirl of his cloak Voldemort left the hall, a trio of Death Eaters at his heels.

The remaining Death Eaters narrowed in on the students, grabbing a few of them, muggleborns, from their seats and bringing them to the center of the room. A few seats down from Harry, Lily was pulled from her seat and out of James' arms, whom was currently being held back by several Death Eaters.

Harry watched on as Lily was pushed to her knees with the others, her green eyes widening with fear, and he shifted silently in his seat, moving his legs into an easier position. As the Gryffindor table was one of the tables that made up the center aisle of the hall, he was right next to the Death Eater holding his wand on the gathered muggleborns.

From his eat Harry could see Dumbledore fighting off a group of Death Eaters, he could see his godfather and the other teachers locked in their own respective battles, he could see the muggleborns crying and sobbing, the Slytherins gloating faces, and he could see the Death Eater in front of Lily raising his wand, his lips moving.

"Avada-"

Harry moved quickly, slamming one foot down against the stone floor. Through his foot he sent a wave of magic through the room, setting everyone off balance and the Death Eater attempting to kill his mother to the floor. He flipped from his seat, landing on said Death Eater's chest and relieved the man of this wand, snapping in. He stepped backward harshly on the man's torso, hitting him forcefully in the groin. He turned to Sirius, ignoring the gasping Death Eater beneath his feet.

"Damn Sirius! Your prank sucks!"

This snapped said Gryffindor out of his trance and the boy shot off a stunner at the closest black cloak, causing it to crumple to the ground.

"I assure you, my prank was a hundred times better than this!"

Standing before Lily he made a motion with his wand and mouthed a few words. This instantly snapped the girl from her spell and she pulled her wand from its holster and yelled "Wingardium Leviosa!" Repeatedly at any Death Eater in sight, causing them to go flying into the air, and drop their wands in confusion.

Harry himself ran to the nearest Death Eater, and applied his magic through the man's wand arm, causing it to fall limp. With another hit the man was down. He may not have as much magic as Dumbledore or Tom, although he still had a great amount, he could manipulate his magic as easily as he could breath and his knowledge of magical release points was extremely useful in close combat. Wizards hardly ever dueled close quarters, preferring to shoot spells off from a distance. It was a good advantage.

"Harry!"

He looked up to see his godfather barreling through Death Eaters to get to him, shooting off curses as quickly as he could. Before he knew it he was fighting back to back with his godfather, the pair of them getting steadily closer to the open doors.

All at once the room lit up with red and gold sparkles, fireworks going off in every direction. In the confusion Harry grabbed the older Sirius' arm and dragged him through the doors. "Where do they keep the register book?"

Sirius shot off another stunner, "In the Headmaster's office."

Harry nodded and ran through the doors, both Sirius yelled after him, the elder following after while the younger was left behind to fight with the rest of the students.

Harry turned around once and yelled back to the younger Sirius, "Don't worry I'll be fine!" And then went back to running. The two ran the entire distance to the office to find Voldemort and his three Death Eaters breaking into the heavily warded cabinet that held the register book.

Not waiting to banter with the dark lord, Harry ran past the shocked Death Eaters and sealed off a release point near Voldemort's wand arm but it only slightly limited his use of magic. People with enough power like Voldemort and Dumbledore took several hits to cut off their flow of magic.

With a yell Voldemort turned around and fired a red curse in his direction, which he ducked skillfully.

"You think you can face me boy?"

Harry didn't bother answering; talking with Voldemort only egged him on. Instead he chose to throw one of Albus' silver instruments at the dark lord's head, leaving a bleeding gash behind.

Voldemort held a hand to his bleeding head, and then brought it down to eye level. He paused only momentarily before throwing off more curses. This went on for quite some time before Sirius and Harry were side by side in the headmaster's office, the three Death Eaters slumped to the floor. It made little difference what Harry did, this Voldemort still had his horcruxes and even once he hit him several times he didn't fall because without all of his soul he wasn't completely human, and his flow was minutely different than a normal mortals. When Voldemort had died in the future, he had been completely horcrux free and could die as easily as any other man.

Beside him Sirius suddenly slumped to the floor, hit with a curse. Harry knelt next to him, keeping his head from hitting the stone floor and cracking.

"I've heard good things about you boy, your skills could be useful to me. Agree to join me and maybe I'll spare that godfather of yours."

Harry stuck out his tongue, "I run with a far prettier crowd, thank you! You'd ruin my reputation."

Voldemort sneered, "So be it boy…"

Harry didn't waver and set himself protectively in front of Sirius. From the corner of his eyes he could see Albus and Minerva, followed by a few students and teachers, James among them.

Voldemort started to speak and Harry could see Albus wink at him and he understood. Looking at the floor he could see Runes appearing, the symbol of an hour glass among the many signs. In the corner of the rooms were his things along with Sirius'.

From there on all he could see was a bright green light.

"No!" James lurched forward, only to be held back by Dumbledore. This couldn't be the end! Harry, Merlin it seemed like only yesterday when he knew, knew that Harry was his son. And now he was gone. Gone just like that, one minute he was there and the next he just… wasn't. And then the ceiling collapsed, and Voldemort was gone too. Only he wasn't gone like Harry…Like Sirius.

From then on it seemed like he was missing a small piece of himself. He tried to think of all the things Harry liked, what was his favorite color? What music did he listen to? Harry said he had two good friends back in the future, what were their names? Who was his first kiss? He had so many questions. James held hand to his wet cheek, the other hand holding onto a sobbing Lily, now he'd never really know… Was his son destined to die even before he was born? He never hated Divination more, because Fate was cruel to take his son away from him even before he was born.

It was a day after the attack, only two casualties. Harry Lionheart and Professor White. The students were dressed in black and the banners, once a shining blue and bronze, where equally morbid.

James and Remus now stood in front of the Headmaster, eyes twinkling.

James finally snapped, "How can you be so damned happy when my son is dead!" Remus made a small motion to shush James but he was just as angry.

Dumbledore smiled, "He's not as dead as you think Mr. Potter, life isn't done with him yet."

James brightened, "You mean…him and Sirius aren't…?"

"No, but how else can you explain the sudden absence of two people, they couldn't just leave, everyone who came in contact with Harry knew him well enough to realize he isn't the type to run. Death, even a false one, was the only sure option. I assure you, he and Sirius are safely back in 1997."

Remus smiled, "Thank you for telling us this Headmaster."

Dumbledore smiled, drawing his wand from his robes. "You're very welcome, but I assume you both know the consequences of knowing the future? You'll both remember Harry, but just as a friend, not a son or surrogate nephew." And before the two could react, Dumbledore's spell was upon them.

Harry winced as he landed abruptly on the floor of the Headmaster's office, Sirius' fallen weight pushing the breath from his chest.

"The landing could use some work Albus."

Albus smiled, "I'll make sure to fix that next time around."

Harry scowled, "No, no next time! Time travel is not my idea of a vacation." He pushed Sirius off his lap and to the floor gently. "My next vacation will be someplace tropical thank you very much." He stood up and opened his trunk that lied under the office window.

Albus looked confused as Harry riffled through his things, finally pulling away victoriously with a green and gray scarf. Albus looked on curiously.

"Wherever are you going my boy?"

Harry wrapped the scarf around his neck, smirking. "To show off my new scarf." He couldn't wait to see Snape's face… With a turn he left the office.

Albus looked after the boy thoughtfully. And after assuring himself that Sirius was indeed alright and still asleep, he too stepped towards Harry's trunk and stood up moments later, a large jar of multi-colored lemon drops in his hands. They didn't make these anymore and he found the odd constantly changing colors delightful as well as tasty.

Albus only meant to send Harry on a vacation to see family… the fact that he gained from this was only a well intended side effect.

Opening the jar carefully he held a shining red lemon drop that was changing to orange slowly but surely. Before he could taste the delicious sweet he heard a yell go through the castle.

"POTTER!!"

Albus ignored the following yells and crashes and sucked the sweet happily. Vacations were nice but the castle was too quiet without Harry.

Home sweet home.

END

LBH:…Not how I'd really like it but I couldn't quite get into the funk of this story after waiting so long to write it. I'm sorry this took so long but I was gone for sometime without my computer to visit family (I got heat stroke!). To top it all off, when I got home, my computer had this annoying virus that completely destroyed everything. I'm only grateful that I had everything backed up.

Well, thank you all for reading and come back soon for my next fic! (I have this novel idea that I'll finish writing the story before I start posting chapters, it'll be great! And regularly updated!)

R/R