Chapter 2: 1977

1977

"Do you suppose he's alright, Albus?"

"Well, Minerva, he does appear to be alive."

"You don't think he's a death eater, do you?"

"I don't believe so, Minerva; however, it isn't every day that someone drops in my office from out of nowhere."

Sirius groaned as he heard the voices, shifting slightly and immediately regretted it – his body ached.

"He appears to be waking up, why don't you fetch Poppy, Minerva?"

Sirius was aware of footsteps and the sound of a door opening and shutting and then silence fell. Groaning once again, Sirius blearily opened his eyes and was met with a strange sight.

A pair of blue eyes stared at him from behind half-moon spectacles and a long white beard brushed against him.

"Nice to see you have woken," the calm voice of Albus Dumbledore said.

Sirius groaned and sat up, clutching his head as he did so.

"Ugh," he muttered. "Albus, what happened?" he glanced round the office and frowned. "How did I end up in your office?"

Albus smiled a soft smile.

"You dropped out of the sky," he said calmly. "I have to admit, I was slightly surprised by your entrance, but now, well, it appears to make sense. You've time travelled." He added as explanation to the strange look Sirius was giving him.

Sirius' mouth dropped open.

"Time travelled?" he managed to gape.

Albus nodded, looking slightly amused by Sirius's alarmed face.

"What year is this?" Sirius demanded.

"1977."

Sirius cursed.

"I take that this is a not a good thing?" Albus asked.

Sirius nodded and ran a hand through his matted hair.

"My sixth/seventh year." He muttered.

"I did wonder why you looked so familiar." Sirius detected a hint of amusement in his headmaster's voice. "Well, it's nice to see you make it out of school alive, Sirius."

Sirius glanced up sharply at this to see Dumbledore beaming down at him.

"But then again," Dumbledore added. "I don't see why that should surprise me. You and Mr Potter have always had a way of worming you're way out of sticky situations."

Sirius felt his stomach clench at the mention of his deceased friend, of course James would be alive in this time. He was, after all, only seventeen.

He was just about to open his mouth to ask Dumbledore something when the door opened and two women walked in, Sirius instantly recognised them as Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey.

"I see you managed to wake him, Albus." Professor McGonagall said as Madam Pomfrey immediately knelt beside him and began checking his heart rate before sticking a thermometer in his mouth before inspecting his body for any signs of injury. She eventually stood up after the thermometer beeped and turned to face both McGonagall and Dumbledore.

"He's in perfectly good health," she said. "Do you need me for anything else, Albus? It's just that I've got a stack of healing potions to brew, and seeing as it's Mr Potter and Mr Black's last year, I have a feeling I'm going to need them."

Albus chuckled.

"Sensing much trouble, Poppy?" he asked.

"There's always trouble with Potter and Black," Pomfrey replied, but she said it with an affectionate tone to her voice.

"You may leave, Poppy, thank you," Albus replied. "Minerva, you too are free to leave."

Sirius watched as McGonagall glanced between Dumbledore and him – who was still sat on the floor- before nodding and departing with Poppy.

"Well," Dumbledore said as Sirius rose to his feet. "Perhaps we should discuss this in more detail, tea?" he asked.

Sirius nodded and watched as Dumbledore tapped his wand at a kettle that stood behind him and it began to whistle.

"Please, Mr Black," Dumbledore said as he began to pour the hot water in the tea cups, "take a seat, milk no sugar, correct?"

Sirius nodded before accepting the tea that Dumbledore handed him.

"Thanks," he murmured.

"Well, Mr Black," Dumbledore said as he sank into his own throne like chair, "Why don't you start from the beginning?"

So, Sirius launched into an explanation of what had happened, telling him everything from James and Lily's death, his imprisonment in Azkaban, his escape all the way to his battle with Bellatrix in the Department of Mysteries.

"Hmm," Dumbledore said, obviously in deep thought. "Well, Mr Black," he said. "We do appear to have ourselves in a deep predicament," he rested the tips of his long fingertips together and leaned forwards. "Until we can figure out a way to send you back to your time, without contaminating the time line continuum, you will have to remain here."

Sirius stared at him.

"Remain here?" he asked.

Dumbledore nodded.

"How would you feel about becoming the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor?"

Platform nine and three quarters was crowded as parents gave last minute hugs to their children, steam rose from the scarlet engine that sat there, it let out a warning whistle and a stream of children immediately began boarding it. Amongst this stream of children were two tall, dark haired teenage boys who had just bid goodbye to the bespectacled boy's parents.

"Oi, Moony!" the taller of the two shouted, spotting the familiar light brown hair of their friend.

'Moony' turned and smiled brightly at his two friends.

"Wondered where you two had got too," he said. "Peter's in a compartment," he jerked his head towards a compartment door. "Prefects meetings about to start, James." He said, addressing the messy haired teen.

"Righto," James replied pushing his glasses up his nose and straightening his Head Boy's badge, causing Sirius to smirk.

"I still can't believe you got that," he said. "Evans is going to freak."

James rolled his eyes at his best mate before following Remus down the hall towards the front of the train.

"Make sure you save me some food, Pads!" he called back over his shoulder.

"Okay!" Sirius yelled back before sliding the compartment door open to find Peter sat there, his tongue between his teeth as he attempted to build a tower out of a pack of exploding snap cards.

Sirius watched in amusement as he took a seat across from Peter.

"Peter," he said casually.

Peter nodded back, concentrating on the tower.

"Sirius," he replied. "Where's James?"

"Prefect's meeting," Sirius said, sprawling himself across the seat. "Head Boy."

Peter blinked in surprise causing him to lose concentration, the result being that the cards exploded leaving Peter with singed eyebrows and Sirius to snigger at his friend.

"Apart from the explosion, that was my reaction," Sirius said with a grin before lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. "I wonder why Dumbledore made him Head Boy."

Meanwhile, further down the train, Sirius' question was currently being voiced by a frustrated, annoyed and slightly angry red headed female by the name of Lily Evans.

"Potter!" she cried as James slid open the compartment door. "What are you doing here?"

James looked at her.

"I'm Head Boy?" he said, the statement coming out as more of a question.

Lily stared at him.

"Head Boy?" she asked. "You?"

"Yes, me." James said starting to feel slightly annoyed now.

"Why on earth would Dumbledore make you head boy?"

James scowled as Lily voiced the question. He was the first to admit that he had been surprised by Dumbledore's decision, but he didn't think Lily needed to sound so surprised. After all, for the past year he had been behaving himself, he hadn't bullied Snape, at least not in front of her, he believed he had grown up somewhat and he had received excellent results in his O.W.L's. It wasn't like he was a complete idiot, sure, he received the odd detention every now and again, and yes, on several occasions, he had lost more house points than necessary, but he had always managed to win them back in Quidditch matches.

"No need to sound so surprised, Evans," he replied annoyed as he stepped fully into the compartment. "Let's just get this meeting over with." With that he sank into a seat beside her and crossed his arms, waiting for her to begin.

After several moments of staring blankly at him, she cleared her throat and began to speak.

Further back up the train, Sirius, now bored with watching Peter, had bought a small, rubber bouncy ball out of his pocket and was throwing it up in the air to amuse himself.

"I wonder what's taking them so long," he muttered as he tossed the ball into the air before deftly catching it.

Across from him, Peter shrugged, his eyebrows now nearly none existent from the amount of times he had been singed.

"Not a clue." He muttered.

Sirius spared him a glance before returning to throwing the ball into the air and catching it.

"Wish they'd hurry up," he muttered. "I want to pull a prank on Snivellus. Do you realise, it has been precisely two months, fifteen days and seventeen hours since I last pranked the greasy haired git."

"Uh-Hu." Peter replied, not really paying attention to what Sirius was saying.

Sirius noticed his tone of voice and rolled his eyes before sitting up and pocketing the ball.

"I'm going to see what's taking them so long," he said and rose from his seat just as the compartment door opened to reveal Remus and a sour looking James.

"About time!" Sirius cried. "What's the matter with you, Prongs?" he added, seeing James' face.

James muttered a word that sounded like "Evans" before flopping moodily into the seat by the window and staring out of it.

Sirius turned to face Remus, who sighed.

"Lily was surprised to find out he was Head Boy and may of accidently insulted him." Remus replied.

Sirius let out a snort of laughter.

"What did you expect, mate?" he asked turning to James. "For her to throw her arms around you and confess her everlasting love?" he snorted and clapped James on the shoulder. "Forget her, it's her loss anyway."

James sent him a withering look.

"It's kind of hard to do that when you're in love with someone." He stated.

Sirius waved it away.

"You don't love her, Prongs," he said. "You just think you do, you'll get over her soon enough."

"Doubt it," James replied moodily before turning to stare back out of the window.

Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius.

"Excellent job, Pads." He muttered.

Sirius just shrugged and begun to set out a game of chess leaving James to sulk at the window.

Sirius sat at the teachers table and stared out at the sea of students filing into the Great Hall chatting animatedly to each other as they went. His eyes moved to the Gryffindor table and he scanned it until his eyes landed upon a group of four boys, one of whom was looking over at the Slytherin table, a smirk on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. He immediately recognised the boy as himself at seventeen.

Beside his younger self sat a boy with messy jet black hair, hazel eyes and glasses who was sat staring moodily at his plate, across from him sat a boy with light brown hair, faint scars running across his face and sympathetic amber eyes that were looking at the messy haired teen. Next to the light haired boy sat a small, watery eyed boy with straw like hair.

Sirius felt anger coarse through him as he looked down at the traitor of the group. Even though Sirius knew that Peter hadn't technically done anything wrong yet, just the thought of him betraying James and Lily made him want to pull out his wand and hex and curse the boy until he could barely stand.

Once the sorting was over, Dumbledore rose and made a speech, mentioning Sirius in it, who acknowledged it with a smile and a nod from his seat, and then the feast began.

The minute the food popped up in front of him, Sirius' stomach growled and he realised it had been a long time since he had eaten a decent meal. He didn't particularly trust the house elf with his food out of fear that he might poison him and so had taken to making his own dinner, which had never ended in a good result.

Grabbing a chicken leg, he bit hungrily into it causing Flitwick, who was sat beside him, to let out an amused chuckle before tucking into his own dinner.

Slightly embarrassed by that, Sirius began to slow up on his eating, but still continued to grab things from plates. By the time the feast had finished, Sirius was well and truly stuffed.

Bidding good night to his fellow teachers, he headed towards his office, kicked off his shoes, pulled of his clothes and slid beneath the freshly laundered covers ready for a long, restful sleep.