A/N: Important clarification!!! Contrary to what you all may think, there is NO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP between Harry and his mother. This story's pairings, canonically boring as they may be, are Harry/Ginny, Lily/James, and possibly Sirius/Some Random Other Girl. Sorry for any disgust caused by that misunderstanding.

Thanks to Carola-x, nightwing27, and Anonymous for reviewing.

Line Break = Time Shift. It's not that hard, people.

Disclaimer: Own Harry Potter, I do not.

The two teenagers stood side by side in the hallway that was so familiar, and yet so alien. The girl's flaming red locks went tumbling across her shoulders as she shook her head back and forth in irritation. The boy next to her just ran his fingers through his raven-black hair in confusion.

Little did they know that thirty years apart in the fabric of time, the exact same actions were being mirrored by the people they had just met.

In both times, the boy reached an arm out and wrapped it around the female beside him; it was with this action that the pattern of repetition through time ended.

Here, in the deserted hallway of the late twentieth century, Lily Evans glared up at James Potter and smacked him lightly across the wrist.

"What do you think you're playing at?" she hissed. "It's fine! We're still at Hogwarts; nothing at all has changed!"

James frowned. "I don't know. It doesn't feel right."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, get over yourself. I'm going back to the common room." With that, she stalked off without a backwards glance. James stood there for a few seconds, looking around him uneasily, then immediately began trotting behind her.

Lily reached the portrait hole. "Cameleer." she declared to the Fat Lady.

The Fat Lady blinked. "Excuse me?" she said in confusion.

Lily sighed. "Potter." she said flatly, not so much as turning back to look at the boy she knew was standing there, newly arrived. "What's the password?"

"Cameleer." he muttered to the Fat Lady.

The plump portrait snorted, a very ungenteel sound. "Mr. Potter, I happen to know that you are not an idiot, so I'll let it pass this once. But next time you and your lady friend are out doing Merlin-knows-what-"

Here Lily's jaw dropped, and the blood rushed out of her face nearly as rapidly as it rushed into James'.

The painting continued. "Do take care to remember the password. Well, go on in!" The frame swung open, and Lily clambered through, decidedly not looking at James.

He just shrugged and followed: he'd been doing a lot of the same his whole life long. It was an occupational hazard of being best friends with Sirius Black and absurdly, madly, foolishly, hopelessly in love with Lily Evans.

Harry's eyes widened. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, but there was no doubt in his mind that the figure in front of him could be anything but who his first thought tagged him as. Tall, fairly muscular, black hair, eyes dark as night. Aristocratic features. Huge smile, mischievous nearly to the point of being threatening. Marauders' Map in hand.

Yes, this was none other than Sirius Black: Harry's godfather, escaped convict, his only true father figure. And here he was, the man he had watched die three years ago, alive and looking not a day over seventeen.

Something was amiss.

"Prongs!" Sirius shouted, grinning. "I found the most amazing new spell today-okay, actually, Snivellus cast it on me when I wasn't looking, but I've still got the incantation, and the rest doesn't really matter."

Harry gaped, and dropped his arm from around his girlfriend's shoulders.

"Come on!" Sirius whacked Harry in the arm. "This is going to be fantastic! All the little ickle Slytherin firsties, just begging to become our victims...c'mon, it'll be a laugh!"

Harry blinked.

"Oh." Sirius turned to Ginny. "Evans. It's you."

Ginny scowled, confused. Why didn't he know who she was? "What are you-"

Sirius just laughed. "Hey. You didn't hear a word of that, okay, Little Miss Head Girl? Okay? Okay."

Head Girl? That was definitely Hermione's territory. Ginny clenched her jaw, and grabbed Harry's upper arm. "Ha-Potter." She didn't want to say anything she'd regret later, and she was beginning to have a vague hunch as to what was going on. "Come on. We have to go talk to the headmaster."

Harry looked at her. "What?"

"It's Heads stuff." she told Sirius, forcing a haughty air. She stepped subtly on Harry's foot, trying to clue him in to what she was going for here.

"But we're not-" Harry protested.

Ginny kicked him lightly, then dragged him away up the corridor. "Sshh!" she told him. "I think I know what's going on here, but I want to talk to Dumbledore before I say anything incriminating."

"Okay." Harry agreed.

The two arrived at the gargoyle. They exchanged bewildered looks, then began guessing sweets.

"Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans!"

"Naw, Gin, he doesn't like those. Er...Acid Pops? Drooble's Best Blowing Gum?"

"Chocolate Frogs? Fizzing Whizbees? Sugar Quills?"

"Ice Mice? Canary Creams?"

"Those aren't invented yet, you dolt." Ginny smacked Harry lightly on the shoulder. "Ehm...what are those muggle things he likes?"

"Lemon drops, but that's not it. Other muggle sweets? Eh...cake?"

"Pumpkin Pasties?" Ginny piped up, reverting to the familiar.

Dumbledore walked up behind them. "What are you two doing?" he asked.

They both jumped. "We're trying to see you, sir."

"Ah, Mr. Potter, how unexpected. I guess as Heads you'd want to talk to me soon enough. Well, come on." He turned to his gargoyle. "I don't know what gave you the idea of sweets." he told them, confused. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." he stated.

"Muggle fairy tales?" Ginny asked.

"But of course." Dumbledore said courteously, and they all went up the revolving staircase to his office.

"Now." he said, once they had arrived, looking at them over the rims of his glasses. "What brings you here?"

"GINNY!" The instant Lily Evans set foot in the Gryffindor common room, she was bowled over by a smiling girl with an enormous mane of bushy hair. Someone she had never met, who didn't appear to know her name.

"What are you doing?" she hissed angrily, and pushed the girl away. "Get off of me!"

The girl appeared hurt, and she bit her lip before stalking away with her head held high.

"Hey!" A tall boy with red hair glared down at Lily. "What the hell do you think you're doing? You've always been nice to Hermione before; there's no reason to start being mean now."

"I'm sorry, but I have never seen that girl before in my life."

His face turned red. "WHAT? Ginny, she's been your friend since you were, what, eleven?"

"Wha-"

"Sheesh, Gin! If you don't want to spend time with her, just say so! There's no need to be so mean about it!" Ron turned to the tall boy beside her. "And Harry, really! You could have said something! She's saved your life even more often than I have!"

James just blinked. "I have no clue what you are talking about. Who was that?"

Ron turned purple. "You-you- She's your best friend! I completely support your relationship with her-" he gestured at Lily, "But this is the last straw!"

Lily gritted her teeth in irritation. "Okay, let me get this clear here. I don't mean to be a bitch, but I have never seen anyone in this room before except the moron standing next to me-and there's not a chance in hell that I'm going to date him, ever! So you might as well just leave me alone until I figure out what's going on here!"

Ron fumed, glared at the boy he thought was his best friend, and walked away.

Hermione walked back up to the duo. "I don't know what you think you're playing at." she sniffed. "If you don't want to be nice, that's fine. But you should show more respect for your own flesh and blood!"

"Flesh and blood?" Lily snorted. "There's no way that kid is Petunia - and there's no way Petunia deserves respect."

"Wait..." Hermione said. "Petunia? You mean, like, Dursley?"

"No." Lily said slowly. "I mean like, Evans."

Hermione paled. "Oh my God. There's no way..." she muttered. "But it fits...."

She looked at the person she had assumed to be Harry. "Hazel eyes. No scar. No way..."

And then she looked at the person she had previously assumed to be Ginny. They looked nearly identical, but this girl had sparkling emerald eyes. Eyes she was used to seeing in quite a different face.

"Oh. My. God." Hermione said once more.

"WHAT?" Lily and James said in unison.

"You two need to talk to Dumbledore. Like, now." Hermione said, shaking her head in disbelief. And so with that, the two shrugged and left the common room.

A/N: I figured that it was 30 years ago, and Dumbledore couldn't have used sweets for his entire stint as headmaster. Also, who would have doubted that Hermione could've puzzled it out? Next Chapter: Dumbledore Explains All.

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