CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: THE WORKINGS OF FATE

"Yes, Harry? Feeling better?" Dumbledore said from behind his desk. He was stroking Fawkes, who stood on his desk. Fawkes laid a beady eye on Harry and let out a soothing note. Harry smiled.

"Yes, I'm okay." Harry said, "I was wondering if there was anything that we might've forgotten.

"Ah. I did want to tell you something Harry." Dumbledore said, standing up and looking down at Harry with a smile. "I wanted to ask you to do a favor for me..."

-x-x-

The sky outside was clear. There was no one outside but them–everyone was in class. When they all trouped down to the Forbidden Forest for the second time a feeling of unease had settled over them like a blanket on the hottest day of the year.

James and Lily kept looking at each other as if on the edge of panic. Harry could see them out of the corner of his eye.

They walked into the forest in a line with Harry in front. As soon as they went under the trees they felt the air around them grow cold. Harry felt it only halfway welcoming. His eyes were downcast as he led them through the trees, along a scarcely trodden path, away from the sound of Hagrid teaching a class about thestrals.

He found a spot surrounded by black thicket. He turned to them.

"We have something else to do first."

Everyone looked at him, confused. "What?" Said James, looking hopeful and frightened at the same time.

"We're going to before I was born so we can tell Dumbledore about two things. He's known all along about all of this. He knew what was going to happen--"

It sounded somewhat like a small explosion as everyone started talking angrily at the same time. Harry turned away from them, suddenly deaf of their voices as he began making the portal.

-x-x-

Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk, thinking of that prophecy once again.

Sibyl Trelawny was comfortable in her tower, he supposed. She seemed quite thrilled, as he'd found that she rarely left the place. Good for her.

He could only wonder at when else she might prophesize while under the roof of Hogwarts.

He had yet to get access to birth dates and such...he would have to go to the Ministry for that, and Cornelius Fudge was someone that he didn't particularly like to cross paths with when he was trying to do something progressive. The portly man was a bit more annoying than Albus' new professor, if that was at all possible, but Dumbledore could handle him...so he would eventually go down to the Ministry...

In the meantime–

"Professor Dumbledore!"

"Ye--" Dumbledore stopped. The teenagers shuffled in, all looking rather resentfully at him and the one who'd first come in. Must've been a Potter. Dumbledore didn't know James had a bro–

And there the boy was. Dumbledore stared at them all, mind working at top speed.

"I believe I would appreciate an explanation very much." He finally said.

The first one smiled. "And that's what we're here for."

And with that, he launched into his story.

Dumbledore listened, looking intrigued. As the boy, Harry, rattled on the others around him all looked strangely hostile, but he ignored them. There was one point when he interrupted and the others all scowled. "Mr. Severus Snape is a Death Eater, you know, Harry. I do not think you should've trusted him--"

The boy Snape snarled as Dumbledore scanned his fingernails unconcernedly, but before he could say anything meaningful, Harry spoke again. "You–in the future–you said that Snape is to be trusted. He helped my parents when he wasn't obligated to–that's your reason, at least."

Dumbledore stared fixedly at him for a moment, then said, "Continue, please."

So Harry finished up with the long story that–he now realized with a slight jolt–had only spanned over a few days. It felt like weeks at least.

When his voice had suddenly died out, Dumbledore asked one thing, "And why has my older self asked you to pass on this information?"

Harry smiled. "He said you'd ask that. He wanted to let you know that Lily and James's first defiance–in their pasts–has been recognized. And also, as you know, that Snape should be trusted." His eyes took on a rather saddened look. "There is one more boy who you ought to know about–Neville Longbottom–he might've been the boy in the prophecy, you never know, he might still be." He smiled ruefully. "You've told me that you'll recognize the signs."

Dumbledore smiled at him, nodding. "I suppose that is all, then, young Harry?"

Harry smiled in a companionable way. "Of course." And he led the troupe back outside.

-x-x-

When Phineas Nigellus entered his frame again, he was in the middle of a rather interesting explanation made by a black haired boy wearing glasses.

When he left the frame there was a slight smile on his face. He knew that the Dark Lord would be pleased to know of the two boys...

-x-x-

When they were once again back in their own time there was a greater feeling of unease over them all. Their trust in Snape would be gone. They understood so. They would forget completely about Harry–though he explained that they might remember bits and pieces of this later on–and everything that happened. But apart from that James knew that the one thing that might've been on his mind would be forgetting Lily.

Of course, he was only vaguely worried about that–because unless Harry forgot to skip him over with the memory charm, he would remember everything until the day he died.

Harry asked them all to move closer so he could do his deed, and they all did rather grumpily.

When he set the spell, tapping each of them–but skipping over James–on the head with his wand, they all stared at him with a dazed expression.

Except for James, who smiled roguishly, whipped his hair back, and pushed Harry into the portal.

-x-x-

When it was all over, a week or so later, Harry did not quite know what to think of the whole situation. He'd pondered over it for a while, but did not fully understand it until he had a chance to speak with Professor Dumbledore.

Dumbledore's office was the same as always. Little magical objects whispered or flashed at him as he passed over the threshold, feeling only slightly uncomfortable.

Dumbledore himself was something to behold in bright orange robes marked with little indigo stars all over the cuffs. He looked at Harry with a small smile as the boy sat down across from him.

Neither of them spoke for a few moments, each holding the silence as if waiting for the other to talk first. Finally Harry cleared his throat and spoke, "I think there's something up with Professor Snape, sir."

"Oh?" Dumbledore said, frowning only slightly.

"Yes. He kept giving my mum funny looks–and they weren't bad looks. Just...funny. I..." He seemed to be trying to muster up the courage to say– "I think he likes my mum–in a love kind of way."

Dumbledore smiled as if congratulating him. "Yes, I had been suspecting of his feelings toward your mother for quite a while. You see, after this ordeal, his attitude toward her had quite lessened in venom–and his attitude toward James only became more poisonous. Oh no," He said, looking at Harry's thunderstruck face, "No, he never wanted her for himself, I believe. It is a different kind of love that I believe he had for your mother. A love more based on admiration, but in the end just as strong as any other–because in the end he let her choose for herself which man she more preferred, and never once held it against her when she chose James over him." He smiled, "I think that part of the reason Voldemort discovered his double-agent act was because seeing Lily again had weakened his defenses over his rather astute mind--"

"He's been found out?" Harry blurted out.

"Yes." Dumbledore said, suddenly looking a bit troubled. "In fact, he was found out on the night that you were all there. Officially, at least. I'm afraid there will be no changing Lord Voldemort's mind."

"Oh..." Harry then voiced another question that had been plaguing him for the last week, "Professor, how did Voldemort find out about my parents first defiance? You did say it was their first defiance, but then if Voldemort never knew--"

"I'm afraid that was something not to be helped, Harry. You see, Phineas Nigellus used to dislike me," He chuckled at Harry, "even more than he does now, and was quick to lend Lord Voldemort that useful bit of information from your explanation to me years and years ago."

"Ah." Harry said, feeling stupider by the minute. But he now had one more question, "And, Professor, how will we spy on Voldemort now?"

"Ah, Harry, I was wondering when you'd ask me this." Dumbledore said. He stood up, smiling serenely, and walked over to a cabinet on the far left of his office. He rummaged in a drawer inside for a moment, and then pulled out a black leather bound book with the Hogwarts crest on it. It looked battered and wrinkled on the edges, like elephant skin. Dumbledore flipped through the pages and smiled down at the one where he stopped–handing it over into Harry's curious, outstretched hand. Harry looked.

The Marauders, all waving happily up at him, had been given an entire page on their own. Random pictures of them playing quidditch or working in class or sitting by the lake. Harry looked up at Dumbledore, who said, "Wormtail is on those pages, looking quite the friend. I believe he's returned to his past, you see."

"What?" Harry said, photo album almost slipping out of his shocked fingers.

"Yes, Harry." Dumbledore said gravely, "He left us–but as the evidence points us, he might very well have come back to his beginnings." He held up a hand as Harry tried to interrupt, "He saved Lily and James that night, which is understandable considering his position with you. But only of his own accord could he have set Ron and Hermione free, given James back his invisibility cloak, and refrained from setting his fellow Death Eaters free from my time spell when we were leaving the Dark Fortress."

-x-x-

Wormtail watched the owl fly away into the dull morning light, suddenly feeling less guilty. He'd thought it over–the first moment he'd had to sit and think since a week ago. Not only was he, once again, feeling guilty about his friends and Harry and a number of other cruel deeds, but he'd been feeling guilty over possibly ruining it.

He'd thought he could change the future. He supposed he should've known that blood-lust in anyone's eyes–even his own.

He could change it now, though. He could not change the course of time, but he'd be damned if he didn't change himself.

-x-x-

Sitting up on his throne like the god that he wanted to become, Lord Voldemort had discovered the meaning of time travel.

You could not change time. You could not do something or say something wrong, then go back and change it. However hard you tried, fate would have it that you simply could not change that one thing.

That was what he'd discovered. He would never again make the mistake in thinking that anything could be rearranged to fit his needs. James and Lily had possibly become stronger with their ordeal–more ready for him when the time came to save Harry Potter from him. He had thought before that other things might mix up time. Now he knew better.

Time was barely penetrable as it was. A wizard could not change it, no matter the circumstances, his weapons, or his cleverness. Fate had set it up, like a giant puzzle, so that no matter what, nothing could break through that shield around their destinies.

Perhaps someday Lord Voldemort would try to look into it, just to test his limits.

He smiled ruefully at himself in the empty room. He'd always tested the limits. Fate had been very kind to him in all points but one–and that concerned Harry Potter. Potter seemed to be Fate's kindest tool.

Perhaps his Fate was already set. After all, he was the clever, disobedient child. No elder would stand to have a child more clever than he around.

Lord Voldemort blinked and rid his mind of all thought, as if chasing away a stray cat.

-x-x-

When Vanessa saw the Marauders again only an hour had passed. She'd been roaming the halls, feeling rather upset and left out. Why hadn't she gone for the chain as well? Everyone else had gone, and she'd been left behind.

She'd been kicking grumpily at the floor in the Entrance Hall when Remus's voice entered her conscience, "Don't look so angry, Ness." And she'd turned around, throwing herself into his arms while James, Sirius, and Wormtail looked on uncomfortably.

"So what happened?" Ness asked, smiling widely at the lot of them cheerfully. They all looked exactly the same–same clothes, same hair, same everything–but something seemed different that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Remus sighed, looking a bit defeated. "It didn't work. We all turned up in the forest. How long's it been?"

"About an hour." Ness said bluntly. She was looking at James, who was suddenly being quite furtive. "What's the matter, Jamesie?"

He smiled, now looking uncomfortable–something was definitely up. If anyone was different, it was him, she decided. His face was different. His eyes looked...older. "Nothing, really...I guess it's just that, well, I've got to admit now that maybe Lily was right."

Sirius, looking furious, tried to speak, but James cut him off with raucous laughter and said, "Oh, come off it, Padfoot..."

-x-x-

Severus Snape, aged twenty-four, stopped in the middle of speaking. The Dark Lord looked at him suspiciously, but he didn't much care. He'd just remembered something. Lily Evans' face. Now that was interesting...and she was right next to him...so close...

The memory disappeared as quickly as it had come.

He suddenly had much less desire to tell Lord Voldemort about that charm on the Potters' house...

-x-x-

It was late at night--or perhaps early in the morning--and James was looking at the time turner hopefully. He hoped he was right. He hoped it didn't send him to the wrong time again. He hoped this would work.

He stood up off his bed, changed into the clothes he'd been wearing days ago before they left on their adventure, and began turning the little hourglass. He licked his lips as if expecting to be doing a lot of snogging.

He couldn't wait to give Lily the one little kiss that would change his life forever.

-o-o-

A/N: The story is finished. As you've all probably realized, the entire plot is explained in the last two or three chapters. Confusing no? Read it again and tell me my mistakes, because I am still thinking of redoing it to work with HBP...even though that book basically shot down my theories in flames sighs If I revamp it I will not be writing any review responses, except for on the first chapter where I will write out a long list of thank you's and such for help or particularly kind reviews. Please tell me if you want me to revamp it, if I get enough requests and motivation, I will gladly write the story again and alter the plot to fit in with book six. Thank you everyone, and be sure not to listen to the radio if you don't want HBP spoiled for you, I've already heard a spoiler that would've killed me if I hadn't already finished the book!

On a different note, I almost didn't finish this story. The fact that HBP came out, and the fact that it completely killed my motivation for a few days almost killed the story. I'd finished it and was waiting until I finished reading book six before I posted the last three chapters. I need to thank, and possibly murder (who knows, lol) Ness Lupin for sending me a nasty email and forcing me to post these last chapters. I want to thank everyone else, and if you particularly helped me in any way, I'll most likely send you a thank you email.