CHAPTER-1 UNEXPECTED LETTER

It was 5th September 1976, new term of Hogwarts has begun only four days ago and sixth year students were already packed with enough homework to last a lifetime. But even a huge pile of homework was not sufficient enough to diminish marauder spirit. In 6th year dormitory three boys were sprawled across their beds, one sandy haired boy was trying to read through his potions essay to check for possible amendments and other two were planning for their grand start of term prank on Slytherins as well as distracting their friend. They were planning to dye Slytherin students in green color with streaks of silver on tomorrow breakfast. They were discussing minor details of their prank with occasional help from the sandy haired boy named Remus Lupin. Their fourth friend Peter Pettigrew was missing from dorm room as he has managed to land himself in a week long detention with their head of house Minerva McGonagall for not completing a particularly difficult essay on human transfiguration. Though Lupin didn't blame poor boy for this particular detention, after all not everybody was king of transfiguration like James Potter, the boy sitting on the next bed having messy black hair, who was merrily chatting to Sirius Black the third boy in dorm with long shiny black hair and a particularly charming smile.

They were half way through their plan when out of nowhere a streak of blinding golden light appeared in their room, they all made a jump for their wands and James landed on ground with tiger like speed and agility pointing his wand to the center of golden light, ready to attack any moment, other two boys were also ready for a fight. All three of them were surprised to see that golden light was gone leaving a slightly smoking piece of parchment behind, James strode forward carefully and picked up the piece of parchment. It was addressed to James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. James raised an eyebrow and looked at his friends because even in magical world, getting letters appearing out of thin air was not a good sign. Remus nodded to James and he unfolded the parchment and read loudly,

Marauders,

Kindly report on 7th floor. On left hand side you will find a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Wait there for a fellow wizard to join you and once you all gather there walk in front of that tapestry three times holding this letter. A door will appear there which will lead you all in a room, where you will find further instructions. But remember only you three are supposed to go there and PETER PETTIGREW aka WORMTAIL is not invited.

T.R.

They were shocked. Someone happened to know about their marauder secret. No one knew about that except the four boys themselves.

"Who is T.R. and how does he know about us?" asked James looking at his friends, confusion was clearly written on their faces.

"This is interesting!" muttered Remus.

"Why are we not allowed to bring Wormtail, he is the fourth marauder after all!" complained Sirius.

"Let's just go and find out." suggested James.

They all nodded and walked out of their dorm. Remus was still bewildered at how someone managed to find them and send letter like that. "why didn't they just use the owl post?" he thought to himself. Sirius was practically bouncing with excitement but James was unusually quite. He couldn't make himself feel ecstatic about this unforeseen adventure. Atmosphere outside Hogwarts was tense, they were in the middle of a war, Voldemort was unstoppable and things were on a downhill. And in such conditions he gets a suspicious letter, "this better be a bloody prank", he thought to himself.

They reached 7th floor after 5 minutes, they found the tapestry as instructed in the letter now they were supposed to wait for a mysterious 'fellow wizard' to proceed. Sirius wanted to find the mystery room without their companion but Remus and James decided to wait, James subconsciously wishing their 4th companion to be Lily Evans, his first and last ever crush. After 5 painful minutes of wait they heard footsteps approaching them. "Finally!" exclaimed Sirius who was on the verge of explosion with anticipation. After another moment they saw Severus Snape coming towards them with his signature scowl fixed on his face and a piece of parchment similar to theirs in his hand. He was looking like a bad tempered bat.

"what are you doing here?" Sirius and Severus exclaimed together. Sirius raised his wand to hex Snape as he was their sworn enemy from first day of school and according to Sirius and James, deserved to be hexed simply for existing, Snape also raised his wand knowing that Black possessed temper shorter then a flobberworm and to everyone's surprise James stopped Sirius from hexing Snape noticing the piece of parchment clutched in his hand. He cast a shield between Sirius and Snape as understanding dawned on him.

"You got a mysterious letter from T.R. asking you to report here?" asked James not at all liking the prospect of Snape being that fellow wizard.

"I got a letter from J.S. asking me to report here and wait for three fellow wizards, and something about your shocked filthy faces is telling me that you people are those fellow wizards" said Snape disgustedly. He was now deeply regretting his decision to actually follow instructions from a mysterious letter.

"Oh no", murmured Sirius.

"Who is J.S.?" asked Remus.

"How am I supposed to know?" snapped Severus.

"No need to use that tone here" growled James and Sirius together.

"Guys, let's just get over with it" reasoned Remus, sensing that a war was approaching them between these three sworn enemies.

"I don't need you tell me what am I supposed to do" snarled Snape. His patience with marauders was very limited and he really wanted to be back in his dorm to finish his work.

"No one is allowed to talk to Remus in that tone," said James in a voice so dangerous that it could give you goose bumps. He would feel more than happy to teach Snape a nice lesson but he also wanted to discover the mystery of this letter.

"We will be more then delighted to be left alone Snivellus" said Sirius in a menacingly silky voice, he himself didn't attack Severus understanding James's hesitation.

"Let's just finish it quickly," Snape said after a moment of deliberation.

James and Sirius rolled their eyes and Remus sighed in relief. Clutching their letter and feeling extremely foolish they walked in front of the tapestry for three times and to their absolute amazement a door knob appeared in front of them.

"This castle never fails to amuse me!" Sirius was ecstatic.

Remus and James glanced at each other and even Severus was beginning to feel uncomfortable about this entire situation.

"Wands out," warned James and everyone clutched their wands tightly ready to attack even at slightest of movement and hoping that they wouldn't have to.

They opened the secret door and entered a giant room which looked like a beautifully decorated living room. Red and green curtains hung everywhere, in the corner was a giant fireplace same as Gryffindor common room and in the middle of the room was situated a glass table surrounded by a couch and armchairs and on glass table was situated a book and on top of book was placed…

"Another letter," said Sirius and reached for it meanwhile Remus picked up the book…

"Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone," he read the title.

"Hey prongs, who is Harry?" Sirius asked James.

James shook his head, "No one that I know of," he replied.

"Why don't you just read the letter and find out," suggested Snape in a bored voice.

With a cold look at Snape, Sirius opened the letter and read aloud,

Dear James, Sirius, Remus and Severus,

The book that you have been given is about Harry Potter, Future son of James Potter.

"What!" three voices exclaimed, Severus was looking stunned. James nodded, indicating him to read ahead.

The room in which you are currently present is called room of requirement. As the name suggest this room presents itself in front of those who need it. You four are called here to read this book, know the future and of course, change it for good. Now, while you are here and reading this book you should keep in mind these following things:

1. This is a story from future, none of this has happened yet. So don't get worked up about how things are in future. And don't blame anyone for their actions in future. (at least not till you finish the entire book)

2. While you are in this room, the magic of this room won't let you use your own magic, don't worry about it your wands will function normally as soon as you are out of this room, it's just a precautionary measure. We don't want you all to hurt each other in the process of reading these books.

"Why would we want to hurt each other?" Remus couldn't help wondering.

3. As you can see only you four are invited here to have a look at future so it is pretty clear that this knowledge must remain a secret guarded by four of you. Not even Peter Pettigrew is supposed to know about it.

"This is the second time they have asked us to keep wormy out of it" Sirius was becoming frustrated with that.

"I wonder why?" said James.

4. You are not allowed to take any book out of this room. If you do so, well, putting it bluntly, the book will explode and so will your only chance to change the future. Boom!

Yours sincerely

J.S. and T.R.

And please! Your life and death depends on this book so take it seriously.

The silence that followed was scary.

"Why does my life and death depend on your future son's story?" finally Snape managed to form a coherent sentence.

James was too stunned to reply.

"I think we should read this book to find out", this time Sirius suggested. They all agreed, even Snape knew that if Black was suggesting to read, situation must be damn serious.

The marauders all settled on the couch, Remus and Sirius on both sides of James, and Snape sat on the arm chair as far away from marauders as possible.

"So should I begin?" asked Remus holding the book out.

"I will read the book," said James; Sirius looked like someone just kicked him in the gut.

"It is about my son!" defended James and took the book, shuffling through pages he reached the first chapter and started reading.