The four "Marauders" sat on the floor between their beds. Their names were known to most as James, Peter, Remus and Sirius, but to each other they were none other than Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

"How do you even know that it works?" Peter asked excitedly, looking at the book Sirius was holding up.

"It has to…I mean, just look how much these people have predicted that has come true! They couldn't have just guessed at it!" Sirius replied, the same happy tone in his voice.

"It's called Divination," Remus said to the group of boys over a separate book, his voice filled with annoyance.

"No, Moony, I believe that would be known as crap," James said back to Remus, who rolled his eyes and went back to his book.

"I say we try it out!" James continued. "We can learn who our kids are, what our jobs are, what we'll look like-"

"Whether a certain Lily Evans has married us?" Sirius interrupted, making James blush furiously.

"Shut up…I just think we should try it!"

"James, you should know better. It would be stupid to see your future before it happens - it's like reading a book when you already know the ending!"

"Oh, and that would be awful!" Peter said sarcastically. Remus stuck his tongue out, and returned to his book. After a moment, however, he set his book down.

"Look, tonight's the full moon, you know we can't do this now!"

"Who said you had to come?" James said to him. Peter laughed a bit, as if he was trying to sound cool by agreeing with James, and Remus rolled his eyes. He shoved his book under his bed.

"Fine. I'm in."

"I knew you'd come to sooner or later!" James smiled. He grabbed the book from Sirius.

"Okay, it says here that we just turn the dial of the compass to the number of years we want to go forward. Alright…everybody put it on."

The four boys stuck their heads inside the chain of a golden compass. Remus looked at James seriously.

"You know, if it's the full moon over there and I transform when we get there, I'm not going to apologize."

"Yeah, whatever Moony…"

Then James began to turn the dial…

"Hermione, could you please stop fidgeting! It's starting to get really annoying!" Ron yelled at a pacing Hermione.

"I don't know if I can, Ron," she replied, finally sitting down on a large couch next to Ron. They were in a lounge area of Sirius' old home. "I mean, with Harry coming in such a short amount of time…we haven't seen him all summer!"

"Hermione, Harry doesn't come until TOMORROW! His birthday isn't even until midnight!"

"Yes, maybe, but it's still good to plan ahead…how do you think he's handling…well, you know."

Ron shrugged. Harry hadn't been to Bill and Fleur's wedding due to a sudden attachment Petunia Dursley had had to him. They had only corresponded through letters. He inched closer to Hermione, and took her hand.

"Hermione…" he said slowly, "What do you suppose he'll think about us?"

Hermione gave a small smile. "I'm pretty sure he always knew it would happen…sooner or later. I'm sure he'll be perfectly alright with it." Ron nodded, smiling to himself, then turned his head towards Hermione. He was about to say something when-

BAM!

Hermione gasped and stood up immediately. Four boys had just fallen to the ground in front of them. After the initial shock had worn off, a voice was heard:

"Padfoot, if you EVER get an idea like this again, I SWEAR on my antlers that you won't ever even LIVE to regret it!"

"Prongs, I doubt that even HE won't be this stupid again. I knew that this wouldn't work, anyway!"

"Yeah, then why did you feel so keen to come along with us, Moony! You could've just stayed with your books."

"Oh, be quiet Padfoot!"

"Um…excuse me?" Ron was standing over the pile of boys. "Who the bloody heck are you?"

One by one the boys looked up at the red head, confusion written all over their faces. Hermione stared at them for a moment, then walked over to a picture near the couch she and Ron had been sitting on.

"Ron, I think we have a problem here…"

"What's that Hermione?" He asked her, but she didn't reply. Instead, she took the picture over to the four boys. The motion filled picture was of the Marauders while they were in Hogwarts. She looked at it, then to the boys, and repeated this a few times. Then she took the picture over to Ron and had him look it over.

"Hermione…this isn't right…"

"We have to take them to Professor Lupin."

"Excuse me?" a boy with extremely untidy hair asked them. This boy had hazel eyes, and a huge resemblance to Harry Potter. "Where on Earth are we?"

Hermione looked down at the boy, trying to contain her tears. She crouched down to his level. Behind him, she could see a pair of eyes that she knew very well, and trusted just as much.

"Remus…Remus Lupin? Right?" she asked the boy.

"Yes," he answered, baffled that this new girl should know his name. "Yes I am."

"Where are you from?"

Lupin hung his head for a moment, then lifted it and answered. "We're from Hogwarts…we're all in our seventh year. May I ask where we are?"

"You're in Number twelve Grimmuald Place…" Hermione counted in her head for a moment, while Sirius proclaimed that it was his own home. "Something like twenty five years from where you started. How did you get here?"

"We had a compass!" Peter Pettigrew finally spoke, after being silent for such a long time. "A time travel compass! Hey…where is that now?"

Hermione stared at the boy for a minute, trying to remind herself that he was still good at this point. "Don't you have it?" she finally asked.

"Hey, Wormtail's right! It's gone! The dumb thing's gone!" Sirius shouted.

Hermione's reasoning told herself that she had to take the boys to Professor Lupin. But how would he react? He had been having many nightmares about them lately, everybody knew, so she didn't want to hurt him more.

"I'm going to need all of you to wait here…I'm just going to get a book. Ron…make sure they don't leave…and don't tell them anything…important."

She walked quickly out of the room towards the House's giant library, to look up anything about traveling compasses.

Back in the lounging room, Ron was trying to answer all of the questions that the four…"arrivals…" had for him.

"Who are you?"

"Um…my name is Ron."

"Are we supposed to know you?"

"Um…I'm not quite sure…"

"Oh, bullocks to this! I'm going to go see how this place has changed since I was last here!" Sirius proclaimed, and ran out of the room before Ron could catch him.

He continued running through the halls until he heard voices coming from a nearby room. The living room! He thought to himself, recognizing the hallway that he was in.

"Honey, I'm home!" he yelled while flinging himself into view.

Within the room, Remus Lupin, Tonks, the Weasley's and Mad Eye Moody had been talking to each other around a large table. Lupin, who had been standing, was instantly affected. He dropped his Butterbeer glass and flung his hand over his face while crouching down onto the ground. The rest of the group simply stared at Sirius, horrified. Tonks went over to Lupin.

"It's not real…" he chanted. "It's all in your mind…" Tonks kept looking back at a now extremely confused Sirius, to prove it to herself that it was true.

"Moony, is that you?" Sirius said, and leaned against both sides of the doorway.

"You're not real!" Lupin stood up, pushing Tonks away very unkindly and began running towards the doorway Sirius was leaning against. He thought that he could simply pass through the illusion, but he could not. After many tries, he sunk down to the ground, and was caught by Arthur Weasley.

"It's not real…" Lupin continued to chant, until Arthur finally spoke to him.

"Remus…I think that it is."

Tonks recovered from Lupin's push and went over to him. She grabbed his hand as four other boys came into view. The older Lupin looked up at his four old friends, and at a very nervous Ron Weasley. Suddenly, Hermione ran into the picture, a thick book in her hands.

"Ron! I told you to not let them leave the lounge!" she yelled at him, causing the two children to begin fighting.

The old Lupin stood up with the help of his girlfriend, and they hushed immediately. He stared at his old friend, Sirius Black, and reached out to touch his chest.

His hand fell over the boy's heart, and Lupin could feel it beating through his fingers.

"Nymphadora…is this real?"

"Yes, Remus," she answered, and Lupin fell into tears. He pulled Sirius, who was already slightly taller than, towards him and wrapped his arms around his neck. Sirius stood completely still, completely confused at what was happening. Finally, Lupin pulled away, still holding onto the young man's arm.

"And the other three?"

"They're here too."

The second boy Lupin went to was James. James smiled at him jokingly, and spoke.

"What's up? Never seen your past before?"

Lupin stared at him for a moment. Little did the boy know that in this world, he wasn't alive. He embraced James, to the boy' surprise, with a very tight squeeze. As he pulled away he saw a face that he knew almost too well, but had forgotten for many years. He walked over to this face.

"How young and carefree I used to look…" he said out loud, yet almost to himself. "I fear that you are unhappy with the way my own appearance turned out." Lupin reached for and held the boy's left arm, right below the shoulder, where they both knew a werewolf bite resided. They simply looked at each other for a moment, knowingly, then they shook hands. Suddenly, Lupin noticed that his old face was extremely pale.

"Are you feeling quite well?" he asked himself.

"Yes…last night was our moon in my time…" the boy answered, lying. James almost said something, but closed his mouth. The full moon was on a different day in this time, so they both thought their old one would not affect Moony's "furry little problem." Or, they hoped it wouldn't.

"Remus, why couldn't you still look like that," Tonks said to him brightly, trying to change everyone's mood a little. Lupin smiled and looked at his younger self.

"I suppose you've just figured out a relationship you will have when you are older," his younger self looked at Tonks, confused, and nodded, embarrased.

Finally, Lupin saw the fourth young boy. Peter Pettigrew. He swallowed the little saliva that resided in his dry mouth and pushed himself towards the traitor. He shook his hand, reminded himself all the while that Peter was still a decent boy. A boy, but never a man. He would never earn that title.

He stepped away from his old friends, and spoke to them.

"Excuse me for my reaction to you. Youth is such a beautiful thing…and yours frightened me at first," Sirius looked at him oddly. He was much more than just scared. "Now, I ask you to go with these two children," he said to them, pointing out Ron and Hermione. "Hermione, don't tell them anything of high importance…however, feel free to tell James of his son's coming. He'll be finding out soon anyway."

Hermione nodded and showed the boys back to the lounge. Remus looked towards the group.